The Big What If....

Levander Johnson died five days after his title losing fight against Jesus Chavez. Now the finger pointing starts. Opponents of boxing have another statistic to wave in our faces, fans of boxing will be rehashing the fight, officials will be trying to work out what could have been done differently, his trainer and father will wonder if he could have prevented his son’s death. It’s a sad fact that this sport will always have it’s tragedies, it’s losses. These men (and women) are not statistics though. They are boxers, sportsmen; they chose a sport that is sometimes brutal, sometimes dazzling, always challenging. We shouldn’t forget Levander Johnson but nor should we dwell on his death. He was a boxer, he was a world champion (at least alphabetically), now it’s over. The sport will continue, we will still watch it, we will still bay for blood, for the big punch, some of us will feel a bit sadder for a few days, maybe tentative about our love of this often vicious sport, but we won’t stop watching it, so let’s not pretend any different. That pretence is a slur on Johnson’s character, on the character of all the boxers who have died from boxing injuries. Let’s enjoy the sport as they did.
Let’s get rrrrready to rrrrrumble.
RIP