The Enemy Within
I write this particular piece with a great deal of anger. For those who know me, boxing is and has been a major part of my life since I was 7 years old. It began with watching Ali fights in television in the late 70's. Then at the age of 13 I began a 7 year amateur career. The past several weeks have been the darkest in the sports history with the untimely deaths on three great champions. Three weeks ago, ring legend and native Nicaraguan Alexis Arguello took his own life with a gunshot to the head. A week later blood and guts warrior Arturo Gatti was strangled and beaten to death allegedly by his wife in Brazil while he lay passed out in a drunken stupor. If those events weren't tragic enough, Saturday night current Jr. Middleweight champ and former Olympian Vernon Forrest was shot to death in Atlanta in an attempted carjacking. This latest act of savagery perpetrated against one of boxing's good guys further illustrates the sick culture in which many black men choose to