Best Boxing Quotes and Lessons for Us
As a genuine lover of aphorisms, here I share with my readers 5 of the best inspirational boxing quotes which have big and valuable lessons for non-boxers as well.
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion” -Muhammad Ali
Nothing great comes easy. However, the irony of man is that he wants to attain greatness without going through the suffering which is the pre-requisite of that greatness. Here, suffering doesn’t necessarily mean some sort of tragedy or tribulation. It also means fighting against your own comfort, your own laziness, your own caprice, your own lust, your own temporary pleasure, your own desire for ease, your own ego, your own short-sightedness, your own temptation to quit, your own tendency to adopt mediocrity, your own running away from hard work, your own pride, your own escape from excellence — simply, your own-self or to use spiritual terminology, your lower-self. Here, boxing legend, Muhammad Ali sums up his entire life’s struggle in two lines. He wasn’t actually enjoying all the training he had to do but he took it all as a bitter medicine for long-term benefits. Today, even after his death, the world remembers him with envy as a true champion. His name is synonymous with success. If he had not forced himself to do things he didn’t cherish doing just for a bigger purpose, he would not have left any legacy at all.
“The hero and the coward both feel the same thing. But the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It’s the same thing, fear, but it’s what you do with it that matters.” -Cus D’amato
This saying by the great boxing manager and trainer, Cus D’amato has a very deep philosophy in it. In fact, there is a secret of human psychology in it as well. It shows exactly why he was able to make champions out of the individuals he tutored. He is saying that, inwardly, the winner and loser are not very different at all. They both have the same basic sentiments and insecurities but what sets one apart from the other is how he handles his emotions and thoughts. Fear is common to both of them. However, where one tries to be an escapist by running away from the opportunity and letting fear overwhelm his entire self and thus ruins his chance for glory, the other, instead of totally diminishing his fear, only masks it and uses it to inculcate his own inhibitions in his opponent’s heart and mind by saying ‘yes’ to the situation at hand and not escaping by deluding oneself. In the end, the difference between the two individuals is immense but if we dissect their inner disposition, the only distinction is that of how one handles his fear.
“If you work hard in training, the fight is easy.” -Manny Pacquiao
This simple yet important saying reminds me of some of the fundamentals of religion. Every religion has its own set of rituals or spiritual practices. For example, in Islam, there are compulsory 5 times prayers and optional recitation of certain holy words. The later, although not obligatory, is very strongly recommended nevertheless. Why? Because, if we do not indulge in it and fight against our lower-self regularly, our performance of the prayer is very shaky and not up to the mark at all which will leave no impact on our spirituality. That is exactly the case with boxing. The performance in the ring is the actual thing whereas the training outside the ring is a pre-requisite to entering the ring. If we invest all our time, energy and efforts in this training, our hassle and hard work in the actual fight will be reduced greatly leaving us without the embarrassment or disappointment of defeat. Training is to boxing what meditation is to Buddhism.
“You never lose until you actually give up.” -Mike Tyson
It is very easy to criticize or even mock Tyson because of his extremely controversial and often-deemed-as-negative life other than boxing but you will be totally humbled in a state of awe for him if you actually study the daily routine he had to undergo to become a boxing champion. Thus, when he says something like what has been quoted above, I will be the last person on earth to say “look who’s talking”. Life is not, was never and would not ever be a bed of roses at all. Furthermore, the higher the goals, the bigger the hurdles. There was a wonderful saying by Rumi in which he said that we should not ask God for a lighter load but a stronger back. Very often in life, it happens that we experience something which seems too cruel to us. At that point in time, it is very easy to become either bitter and cynical or totally hopeless and adopt a defeatist’s attitude. The inspirational message of Tyson is that the obstacle, setback or extremely negative encounter itself doesn’t fail us. It is how we react to it which fails us. If we give up on our dreams, our passion and our goals because of that harsh experience, we have totally lost the game but if we continue striving for it, struggling for it and fighting for it, we are not the losers even if we do not actually reach our desired or intended destination because it is the journey that counts. German philosopher Nietzsche said that what doesn’t break you makes you stronger. Trials and tribulations are not there to discourage us from treading the path we have chosen but they are to make us far better and stronger individuals than we were before so that we can aspire towards and fulfill our dreams and hopes to a much fuller extent. From a spiritual perspective, the capacity to take blows in life is the highest in prophets, then followed by saints and then decreases with decreasing level of righteousness in different human beings. If we talk specifically about boxing, a great boxer may not be the hardest hitter on earth but he certainly has the tendency and potential to make a big comeback after being hit in a very harsh manner. This motivational theme reminds me of a dialogue in Silvester Stallone’s epic hit series, Rocky when he says,
“It ain’t about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
Does anyone remember the 4th part of Rocky in which Stallone fights the huge, extremely powerful and very threatening Russian boxer who had beaten Rocky’s best friend to death in his previous fight? It is said that perseverance commands success. There is no better depiction of this truth than this epic boxing battle between the two rivals. Rocky’s strength is nowhere near the Russian giant and so he cannot knock him down at all. His real strength lies in his stamina and will power due to which he is able to get up and fight back again and again whenever he is hit very hard. The Russian, on the other hand, relies more on fierce brutal power and is unable to stand up to the test when Rocky knocks him down in the end to, eventually, take the title and earn glory for himself and his country.
