For a few minutes, it seemed that the fight would take calm paths, he came even to think about the possibility of going from the ring to a less physical stage. Chess, maybe? It would be necessary to sharpen the senses; it is true, because his opponent, no matter how much he promised to set aside the long days of sweat and blood, would maintain his purpose of defeating him. Going from punches, wounds, to just dealing with ideas, it would pose new challenges, but it would be much better, wouldn't it?

However, the time was short; his opponent was imprisoned by his worst instincts and returned to the usual hostility. The arrogance blinded him; he does not want to know about changing the game. On the other hand, he tightened his gloves and came with everything. He does not even allow him a break to regain strength, to the point that he has almost no chance to drink some water. His main ally on the ring goes with his own problems and cannot give it to him as usual.

How did he get into this situation? Laziness, bad practices on the ring? There are, he does not deny them. He suffers them and tries to eliminate them. Any calm and objective analysis of combat cannot deny the harsh conditions in which he has to be engaged. He does not fight in equal possibility, which is a variable that right now marks the beat of the actions.

To infuse himself, the boxer repeats to the weariness that what he is living is a critical juncture, which now will not be like in rounds 30 or 31. Yes, when he fought with old gloves and patched shoes over and over again, while he saw the headboard that protected him from his rival's English screamed jabs disappear forever.
To make matters worse, who then served as his coach, his mentor almost from the beginning of the fight, his paradigm of what should be a successful fighter, abandoned him to his fate. At that time, very few in the stands were betting on him. Those seats once crowded with supporters emptied the place in the blink of an eye.

They were 10 or 12 assaults of extreme tension, he remembers, while dodging a powerful right punch that threatened to destroy his chin. What did he do to get out of the quagmire? A lot. He found more effective fighting styles. He discovered an unusual leg speed for connoisseurs of this sport. He found new alliances; he was reunited with forgotten friends, maybe not as powerful as those of yesteryear, but faithful in all times.

All the predictions stated that his final hour had come, or at least, that he lived the "penultimate days," as a perverse chronicler entitled. However, he drew strength from where it seemed he was not. He activated collaborative springs between his muscles and body parts that allowed him to more efficiently manage his low calories. He explored movements and punches that combined orthodox modes with others supposedly harmful to his health, but that he noticed over time, made him stronger, more complete because they would unlock springs that he would not otherwise have developed.

It is true, he recovered the most primitive survival instincts that he believed were overcome and had to deal with them, especially because he lives a different era of boxing. The fight no longer takes place in the aseptic conditions of before. The injuries, missteps, the temptations of throwing in the towel are at the order of the day.

Seeing himself cornered, should he hold on to the idea of the transitory, no matter how short-lived these hours of narrowness are? Maybe not so much because ... how many have been his moments of calm? Few, very few. It is just that when he had them he believed them permanent and forgot those tactics that allowed him to survive, even while the dispute was much tighter.

Now that he has to force himself to dust off endeavored strategies, he should incorporate them into his daily training. That does not mean giving up the aspiration to be a better boxer. At the end of the day, he will be that better boxer if he turns into daily practice the efficiency that has emerged in moments like today. For this Caribbean fighter, the smart thing would be to learn from such a complicated circumstance as today, not from the notion of the transient but from the certainty that it could be repeated.

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