Face Off

Exams are finally through. Saturday the 24th was my last exam and it was early at 9am too. It was the most enjoyable exam I ever wrote. The prof gave us the exam questions well before hand and we were allowed to use to bring in a laptop to type out our answers and save it on the prof’s USB stick to be graded. That is what I call putting technology into good use! The morning started out gloomy when I drove to school but once my exam was through, it was sunny with blue skies. I’ve got no crazy exciting partying plans though. I missed most of the partying already since I finished this late. But as I always say, there will be plenty of time in my life for that.

After grabbing lunch with my high school buddy, I was driving on the way home blasting music in my car. It was a red light and my phone rang. I looked around my surroundings and even peered through all my mirrors to see if any cops were around. It was my manager and by the time I answered his call, he had already hung up. I called him back.
He picked up, “Eh! Look who finally picks up their phone!”
I chuckled a bit.
“Hey haven’t heard from you in a while boy. How are the exams treatin’ ya?”
Suddenly, I hear a knocking on my window. I rolled down the window…shit it was a cop. First thing that came to my mind was…there goes a few hundred bucks evaporating from my bank account.
It was a lady cop. “You know you shouldn’t be driving with a handheld device right?” she said. She had a really sweet voice, there was no authority in her voice like any law enforcement officer should have. She was this pretty good-looking blond girl. She looked more like a pretty girl dressed up as police/stripper on Halloween than a real police officer. But I glared at her badge and it was legit. I guess my manager heard what the lady cop said.
“I see you’ve got company with your lady friends eh?”
I kissed my teeth in frustration. “I’ll call you back,” I said.
“Don’t worry its okay. Hav--…” I hung up the phone.
I was at the intersection and all eyes were on me as for anyone that gets pulled over. My music was still playing…pretty loud too…and it so happened to be playing Lil Wayne featuring Bobby Valentino’s Ms. Officer. The car right beside me had their windows down and the passengers were giggling loud enough for the lady cop to hear them. She knew why and what they were laughing at. I looked up at the lady police officer. She was trying to hold back her laughter or smile. I couldn’t tell which one. She finally spoke again.
“You know it’s a hefty ticket right?”
I looked down and nodded. “Yeah,” I said under my breath. “It was a red light and I was just making a quick call to confirm where I’m meeting my friend,” I lied. I reached in my wallet for my military ID. It’s my “get out of jail free” card almost. As I’m reaching for it, she puts her hand out to stop me.
“It’s okay. From now on, just remember to use a hands-free device next time okay?”
“Yeah, I will.”
She smiled for a bit. “Off you go then.”
“Thank you! The police force needs more people like you,” I smiled back.
I breathed out a sigh of relieve.

I called my manager back as soon as I got home.
“Had fun?”
I explained to him the whole story of what had happened and why I hung up on him.
“No way! You’re just making excuses. Just admit it was one of your lady friends.”
“No it was absolutely NOT my lady friends.” I said sternly, as I’ve repeated the sentence at least 3 times.
“Well then, there’s an offer for a match late August, likely in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall or some unconfirmed location in Vegas again…closed-circuit you interested?”
I haven’t been keeping up with my training for the last few months because of the workload from school. And of course school is priority.
“I’ll get back in the gym tomorrow and let you know how I feel first,” I told him. But in my mind I have already made my decision. If all goes well in the next couple of months, I’m going to take the fight.
My manager briefly spoke about my opponent if I was to take this fight. His name was Burney, his story is a rags to riches one. He immigrated to the States from Mexico, living in a impoverished neighbourhood where he took up boxing to defend himself from local gang members. He quickly rose through the amateur ranks and gave all his winnings to his mother to buy rice to put food on the table for his family. I met him 6 years ago when he won the Golden Gloves Championship. It was his claim to fame and ever since then, he’s been living a wealthy life. People were drawn to him because of his charismatic personality and he served for his country in the U.S. Marine Corps as I served for the Canadian Forces. After his victory, I went backstage to his locker room and congratulated him. I told him he was a great fighter and that I wanted to be just like him going up through the ranks. He is often referred as back then “the surefire hit who is plotting to smash through the walls of boxing being the cross-over success”. He recently was caught having illegal plaster wraps inside his glove when he fought, making his gloves harden so that he would inflict more damage to his opponent. His boxing license has been suspended for one year. Boxing is a rough sport; you get punched when your opponent exploits the weakness to your defense. Accidental elbows, head butts and cuts are all part of the game but putting plaster on your hand wraps is criminal, its attempted murder. It’s going way too far. He could’ve changed his opponents life, could’ve ruined his opponents boxing and athletic career, could’ve killed him also. So to me, a one year suspension is just a slap on the wrist. By scheduling a boxing match with him is doing business with him by splitting the profits of the ticket sales and marketing with him. He denied that he had anything to do with the illegal wraps and that he didn’t know that his trainer put plaster in his wraps. But I kind of find it hard to believe that someone can put plaster on your wraps without you knowing. Doing business with an unethical man…involves some consideration.

Over 10 years ago, two countries inside of one continent, two boys set out on different paths which ultimately led them to this place. Burney who seeks to extend the legacy that has brought him glory and fame. The other which is me, hopes to upend the legacy to start one of my own. Our military service is a testament to the pride of our nations. For him, he is admired by choruses from fans while only single voices of encouragement can be heard from my end. We are guided by studying instincts to strengths and flaws as we refine instinct and hone skill and thus pursue a mastery of the moment. One hopes to begin a journey that the other has completed…to start with so little and become so much