Collision Course

The rowdy people across the hallway from my suite woke me up. I still can’t believe I’m in Las Vegas and my fight was just yesterday. I crawled out of bed and tripped over my fight gloves…the pair that I used just last night for the fight. An idea popped out of my head, I grabbed the marker on the desk….tested it out to see if there’s still ink in it. It did. I wrote “Never give up on my glove!” and signed it below. I packed up my bag and put the glove inside and was headed for the hospital where I stayed last night.
When I got there, I asked the nurse at the front desk for Dr. Woreff. They asked if it was an emergency. It wasn’t. So I had to wait patiently for him to be available. Twenty minutes later Dr. Woreff emerged from the hallway.
“Eh Doc!” I yelled and waved to get his attention.
“Hey, how is your arm feeling today?”
“It’s stiff today, but it’s healing really fast,” I replied.
He gave me a brief medical explanation of the human healing process for joints and ligaments.
I reached in my bag. “I brought something for your son.” I said. I pulled out the boxing gloves that I signed and put it in his hands. The doctor seemed speechless. “Oh my gosh! Thank you so much my son would love that! By any chance are you free at 8? I get off work and I could bring my son out, He’d be ecstatic to see you.”
“Sorry I got a plane to catch at 9! Won’t be able to make it, but I can promise you that I’ll be back in Las Vegas hopefully before year-end.” I said.
“Whatever you do kid, don’t let the booing of the fans affect you psychologically.” I nodded. He’s is a doctor in every sense on the word. “I’ve got a lot of fight left in me, you’re not gonna see me hang up my gloves anytime soon.”
I waved goodbye to him and turned to head to the elevator. “How come I don’t get anything?” said a playful, yet familiar voice. I looked up it was the nurse was last night (don’t mean it in that way…but).
I laughed. “What do you want?”
“A hug.” She replied with a quirky smile. I gave her a squeeze. “I got break right now, and you are coming with me for coffee.” She said as she grabbed my hand and led me downstairs. She's attractive and she is definitely sexy. And more importantly sassy and witty. A little crazy but by no means unstable.

As an athlete, we are used to acting or reacting quickly as situations dictate. It’s always going after that opening, quick footwork, furious combinations. Now, I’m sitting at the airport waiting for my flight. There’s a lot of downtime now…and that’s the worst and toughest part of my day. My manager’s phone suddenly rang to the ringtone David Guetta Featuring Akon’s “Sexy Bitch”. People around were snickering, others were too hung over to care. He picked up the phone, his face flushed in embarrassment. It was Darren congratulating me on my victory on behalf of Sports Illustrated. He wanted confirmation on the release of my section on SI issue for September, but I wanted to postpone it until next fight when there would be more media coverage on the bout and hopefully this time I’ll give it a performance of my lifetime. All that’s on my mind is crowd’s reaction in displease after my fight. The boo’ing, the audience waving their fists cursing and people putting their thumbs down signaling a poor performance really got to me. As much as they are voicing their detestation, they are also being disrespectful in my opinion. I don’t ever consider myself the best, never have, but I do train to fight the best. My opponent’s a great fighter but unfortunately it just wasn’t his night tonight. I owe everything to my team, training partners, coaches and to the friends that support me and to all my hard training. It’s not just about me being respectful, it’s about the sport. I believe everyone should be respected …especially those that go through what we go through to prepare for our fights for 8-12 weeks just to put on a 30 minute show for the fans. I spend a lot of time away from my friends, my family and I think I’m sure a lot of other athletes do as well…that’s what I feel the sport should be represented like. But at the same time these people paid good money to see us go at it; displaying technical aspects of the game along with speed, power and great athleticism, so I do see why they are not satisfied and since they paid for it they should be entitled to their opinion and voicing it. Members of my team got me a drink and sat around me and tried to cheer me up.
“What’s on your mind champ?” asked Rodney.
I sighed, “Just thinking bout the peeps booing me.”
“Coach said you hooked up with that cute nurse eh? How was she?”
“Haha…tell you bout it later boys…I just want some peace and quiet for now.” I said as I stood up heading for Starbucks to get a black coffee.

As the plane lifted off I took one last look at the city of Las Vegas… I’ll be back and this time I’ll give these guys what they came here to see. I closed the window flap, sunk back on my seat. It’ll all be just a memory to take home from the corner of the ring.

“Look me in the eye
It’s ok if you’re scared, so am I
But we’re scared for different reasons
I’m scared of what I won’t become
And you’re scared of what I could become
Look at me
I won’t let myself end where I started
I won’t let myself finish where I began
I know what is within me even if you can’t see it yet…
Look me in the eyes
I have something more important than courage
I have patience
I will become…what I know…I am”

– Michael Jordan


(Of course when I’m writing this I’m already back in Toronto hitting the books and studying…just real behind on updating this…)