I enjoy boxing, but I don't follow it at all. (Who's got time when there are so many movies to see and TV shows to watch?) But when there's a fight on HBO I'll often find myself stopping to watch the whole thing, which never happens to be when I chance upon a basketball, baseball, or football game.
Anyway, I just watched the replay of last night's WBC heavyweight title match between two guys I'd never heard of before: Chris "Nightmare" Arreola and Vitali "Dr. Iron Fist" Klitschko. Klitschko was defending, and by pretty much every measure, it was a relatively boring heavyweight bout: The big Russian dominated nearly every minute, relying on his reach and his speed to keep Arreola at a distance, and just clobbering him every once in a while. Arreola's trainer stopped the fight after 10 rounds.
Pretty standard stuff, really, with no Rocky moments (though Sly Stallone and his pal Arnold Schwarzenegger were seated together at ringside). But Arreola's amazing post-show in-ring interview really struck me: Dude was basically bawling—out of frustration, not pain—and swearing up a storm: "Vitali's a strong motherfucker. Shit!" It's touching and hilarious at the same time. Check it out. Below, a video of Arreola in cockier times, also swearing. And if you've got a few minutes, look up the story of Klitschko and his brother Wladimir; between them, they own all of the major heavyweight belts, but they've sworn never to fight each other—to keep a promise to their mother. And who said this sport was all about brutes?