My son finally hit me with a request I didn't want to answer the other day. He asked me if there was ever a fight I refused to watch. If he'd added "again," I could've given him a long list. But "at all," that's a different bag.
I thought about pretending to have never seen Holmes-Cobb to save him a lifetime of seeing that one, but I offered him a fight my dad had warned me not to watch: Robinson-Doyle.
Since my old man had only told me the outcome of that and nothing of the particulars, I could only prep my son by telling him a story I'd learned much later in life about how Sugar Ray had dreamed before the fight that he'd kill Doyle in the ring and called the whole thing off as soon as he woke up the next morning.
Robinson's people sent a priest over immediately to convince him the Lord would never communicate like that just so they could salvage their championship gate.
Ray whupped Jimmy Doyle all over the ring for eight rounds before landing a counter left hook flush to Doyle's temple that knocked him spark out. Doyle was saved by the bell at the end of the round but never regained consciousness. I'm not sure Robinson made it out of the ring whole afterwards either.
I told my son if he was going to watch the fight anyway to stop the video after the KO so he'd remember the punch and not the result. I know my old man would've loved to give Sugar Ray that same advice if he'd ever gotten the chance.
Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in HAD, Heavy Feather, Pidgeonholes, The Shore, No Contact, Autofocus, WAS, and other journals. He’s also had pieces included in Best Microfiction and Best Spiritual Literature. His latest collection is Against the Woods’ Dark Trunks (Mercer University Press, 2022). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019