Diego Corrales-Floyd Mayweather offers widely applicable life lesson
If sports are measured by their ability to depict the dramatic complexities of real life, professional boxing will never die.
Case and point: if you want the kind of drama that makes “The Wire” look foolhardy, tune into the historical match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Diego Corrales, which took place on January 20, 2001.
At the time of the bout, both Mayweather and Corrales were undefeated super featherweight prospects (130 pounds). Neither had been defeated and neither had even been knocked down.
This was the kind of fight that was said to go either way. Corrales, 33-0 at the time, had taken out the likes of Derrick Gainer and Angel Manfredy Jr. Mayweather, 24-0, had beaten the same guys as Corrales, and had even stopped Manfredy a round earlier.
When the two did finally get into the ring, things had become ugly. Mayweather had publicly taunted Corrales about domestic disputes with his wife, which angered Corrales considerably and brought an undeniably personal aspect to the bout. When they touched
gloves before the opening bell, it might have been about respect, but it certainly wasn’t about gratitude.
In the fight itself, Mayweather dominated. Perhaps out of all his bouts, this is the one in which he showcased legendary status and not just that of a formidable, world-class athlete. Corrales was a world-class athlete and boxer too, with an incredible
heart and charisma. You wanted him to win. And yet what the audience got was a Corrales who was driven to near lunacy with frustration against a guy who simply couldn’t be beat.
Corrales went down five times against Mayweather—three times in the seventh and twice in the tenth. At no point did he seem to lose composure or coherency. The knockdowns were such that they seemed merely to frustrate Corrales, and to remind him he had
been off-balance with a punch, and had been caught for it. It was as if he was just being schooled by a teacher, but somehow couldn’t come to terms with the psychological reality of being ousted by a superior.
That whole scenario came to an apex when Corrales’ father and trainer, Diego Sr., stopped the bout in the tenth. After being knocked down for the fifth time, a frustrated Corrales turned to his corner and noticed his father about to stop it. Corrales waved
his gloves in opposition, but to no avail. After the fight was stopped, he pushed and screamed at his father, saying he didn’t have the right to stop it.
In a post-fight interview with Larry Merchant, Corrales explained repeatedly that he believed he should have been able to continue fighting, even though defeat was imminent. Reflecting on the situation, Corrales was on the verge of tears several times,
admitting when Merchant asked if he will come back from the loss, “You know, I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I never planned for a loss [...] I guess I’ll go back to the drawing board and see what happens, but I’ve never planned for a loss.”
If you go back and watch the whole fight, and then the subsequent interviews with Corrales and Mayweather, what you really have is a gripping drama about the human spirit. Corrales is a guy who has clearly put everything into a sport, showcased his vulnerabilities,
and is forced to negotiate them in the ring and later with Merchant.
Part of the excitement of boxing is in the fact that the sport is structurally designed to offer sweeping testaments about what it is to be human and to be forced to swallow unbearable loss.
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