By Fiona Manning for
FightNightNews.com
I was accused this week by a female fighter of not knowing when
a fighter should give it up, hang up the proverbial gloves.
'Only a fighter knows when it time to quit,' she told me.
Having watched some colossal mismatches lately, I know she’s
absolutely wrong. And I’ll tell you why: we fight writers may
not take punches for a living, but we are trained to see the
decline in a fighter. We see it at the gym, in the ring and in
their every day speech.
Unfortunately, the sad and tragic decline of a boxer often goes
unreported, especially when it continues in private silence,
outside of the ring.
The following is true. Before I tell you the name of the
fighter, read on and remember: how many others is this happening
to?
Our story today focuses on a fighter who, while a successful
welter contender from the mid west, had been in the ring with
the best. He’d contested world championships, sparred viciously
with up and coming champions.
Daddy-trained, he was polite and charming, handsome and
something of a crowd pleaser. He was also a tough son of a bitch
in the ring. Everybody loved him. Then he started to lose.
Badly. He stopped getting sanctioned for fights.
I wrote an article called “When Warriors Should Retire” after I
heard he was sparring Oscar de la Hoya in Big Bear and taking a
lot of punishment.
The result was that I got emails from fans of the fighters
saying I know nothing about boxing. The fighter was fine. He was
just going through a rough patch.
California State Athletic Commission’s brilliant medical
director Dr. Paul Wallace assured me the fighter would never be
approved in California and even Nevada State Athletic
Commission’s Dr. Margaret Goodman wrote and told me she would
not be approving a future fight without a major medical
examination.
Then I got a phone call which has caused me sleepless nights
ever since.
A guy in Bakersfield called Repo Rick 'bought' the rights to the
fighter, brought him to Bakersfield, CA. Utterly delighted with
his new purchase, Repo Rick moved the fighter, his wife and
children into his house with his own family.
He began to shop the fighter like he was a vintage Mustang in
cherry condition. At home however, while Repo Rick was wielding
phone calls to promoters and to CSAC, his family’s life was
completely disrupted.
Repo Rick's wives discovered the fighter was prone to violent
mood-swings, lethal headaches producing blackouts and
afterwards, complete loss of memory.
The Bakersfield Police found the fighter huddled in a phone
booth one morning, sobbing hysterically, clutching the receiver
in his hand. The fighter did not know his own name and had no
idea where he was. Only that he was lost and needed help.
Repo Rick was surprised by this. He was even more surprised by
the bad news he was getting bad news from promoters. Nobody
wanted to put his guy in a fight. But he’d bought a vintage
Mustang, see. He wanted to make good on what he was fast
realizing was a lemon.
But there’s no lemon law for broken down fighters. So what if
the Mustang was in such bad shape? If Repo Rick could at least
make back what he paid for the fighter, he’d cut bait.
Meanwhile, the fighter’s wife was at the end of her own rope.
She could no longer handle her husband, who in his deluded state
assured her everything would be all right once he became world
champion. She took their babies and fled home. She was afraid
that in a moment of blind, uncontrollable rage, he would kill
the only people in the world he trusted and loved.
Repo Rick helplessly watched the young woman weep as she packed
her few earthly possessions and left the only man she’d ever
loved.
She told Repo, “That man had left long ago. I don’t know the
person this person who’s invaded his mind and body. He’s like a
walk-in.”
The debilitating mind lapses continued. The cops got so used to
finding the fighter lost and petrified and bewildered, they’d
pick him up drop him off at Repo’s.
“There you go, champ.”
Repo bought the fighter a pager, pre-programmed with his cell
phone number so in case of one of his frequent emergencies, all
he had to do w as press one little button and Repo would come
and collect his Mustang.
He started babying the fighter, to the increasing detriment of
his own family’s safety and comfort. He was desperate to land
him at least one “cash out” fight until he could shed him like
an old skin. It never occurred to him to seek medical
intervention. Instead, he sought a gym trainer to get the
Mustang road-worthy.
Repo Rick took the fighter to Dee Pooler up at the Fairtex gym
in San Francisco. Fairtex (then owned by slain MMA star Alex
Gong) was a state-of-the-art complex. Exactly what a guy with
massive brain damage needed.
Dee Pooler, trainer of female heavyweight Martha Salazar, was
shocked to see what he considered to be a superstar in the sport
of boxing in his gym. He sat the fighter down and asked him a
few questions.
It was Pooler who alerted me to the fighter’s deteriorated
state. “We were introduced and he looked at me and said, ‘Are
you a promoter?’ I told him no, that I was a trainer. Ten
seconds later, he asked me what my name was and said, ‘Are you a
promoter?’ We had the same conversation twenty times in
approximately 10 minutes.”
Pooler refused to train the fighter who pathetically begged him
to train him. When Pooler called me, I contacted Repo Rick who
was initially excited because he thought I was going to help him
get a fight for his prize Mustang.
He wasn’t interested in getting humane help, wasn’t too enthused
about getting urgent medical help for the man they used to call
Motor City. He stopped returning my calls and I have lost touch
with him.
What happened to Oba Carr should never be allowed to happen to
any fighter, but believe me it happens more than we who love the
sweet science want to believe it happens.
The next time you watch a beloved “warrior” in the ring, Arturo
Gatti, Fernando
Vargas et al, ask yourself: Is this what we really want to see?
I have no idea where Oba Carr is now and can only wish him God
speed. I hope
he is back home in Detroit, getting the help he so badly needs.
I’ll be back
For questions / comments: e-mail me at
bondigirl@aol.com. |
