That Last One Percent
During the 23 years since the rematch between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello, I've heard it said by a few fans and writers that they think Arguello quit and deliberately stayed down in the 10th round as he was being counted out. I guess it's not wrong to think he probably could've beat the 10-count, had he believed there was a reason to. That said, I think it's wrong to even whisper that Arguello just quit and gave up. Alexis Arguello staying down in his rematch with Aaron Pryor is something I have no problem with at all.
Arguello gave it everything he had in both of his title bouts with Aaron Pryor. In fact I believe he pretty much knew he couldn't handle Pryor after their first meeting. I think he felt the outcome wasn't a fluke or him just having and off night, and discovered during those 14 brutal rounds Pryor had his number. He probably felt a rematch with Pryor would be a re-run of the first fight. However, the champion in him is the reason he had to fight him again. He had to know. Pryor very well may have taken 99% of Arguello's belief and convinced him that he couldn't beat him if they fought ten times. He just didn't take that last percent Arguello had telling him, no, this time it'll be different, he just had a good night last time.
As small as it is, that one percent can be a monster sometimes, especially if it represents what a fighter wants to believe. Until Arguello either beat Pryor, or lost his last percent trying to beat him, he'd be tormented mentally by never finding out for sure. I know.
In the rematch, it was really just a matter of how long it would take Pryor to conquer Arguello's last percent of belief that he could win. It took 24 rounds over two fights. When Pryor sent Arguello to the canvas in the tenth round, he finally got Arguello's last percent. Once Arguello was 100% sure he couldn't beat Pryor, there was nothing left to drive him to keep going. He realized the outcome was out of his control.
I'll never forget the look on Alexis Arguello's face as he looked up at Referee Richard Steele. I read it as him saying, "Okay, that's it, you've convinced me, I gave you everything I had and it wasn't quite enough. There's nothing else I can do. But that's Okay, I can live with myself now, I can't beat you. IF I get up, you'll put me back here again, so there's no use getting up. Hawk, you got my last one percent. I know you respect me and won't go out of your way asking for me again." I'm Okay with that now.
posted by Frank Lotierzo @ 8:22 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
As Rich and others have suggested, there should be a word other than "quit" for what Arguello did.
Quitting is what Andrew Golota did when Michael Grant knocked him down after Golota had pounded him like a drum for ten rounds. It was a real knockdown, but Golota did not appear to be badly hurt. He got up, seemingly fit to continue, the ref asked him the pro forma question about wanting to continue, and Golota said "No." The ref did a doubletake and asked again, then waved the fight off so contemptuously that it looked like he might take a poke at Golota himself. Golota had put Grant down twice already and won almost every round, so all he had to do to win was fool around for two more rounds, but he opted not to. That was quitting, especially when you consider that Grant had patiently taken his beating for ten rounds without complaining. Now, if it was Grant, and not Golota, who had gone down in the tenth, and he'd gone down hard enough, I don't think it would have been quitting, exactly, for him to stay on the canvas for a ten-count, even if he had been able to get up and continue.
What Arguello did was more like acknowledging that Pryor was the better man, and he had taken enough of the beating he had coming to him that he could plausibly make that acknowledgment and not be quitting.
Fight writers are too quick to call fighters quitters, cowards, and the like. What's funny about it is that players in other sports quit all the time--in most basketball games that don't go down to the wire, one team pretty much quits when it's clear how the game's going to turn out--and nobody gives them a hard time about it. But boxers have to be superhumanly brave at all times, or else some armchair superhero at ringside will pronounce them chicken.
Speaking of lines that would sound terrible in a screenplay but are moving when fighters say them, Larry Holmes has a signed picture of Arguello up in his building, and on it Arguello reminds him to "be a good son." Always good advice.
I just watched the last round of Pacquiao-Morales III on YouTube. I have nothing but respect and admiration for Morales. He gave it his all, at least of what he had left entering the fight.
It's really something how guys like Arguello and Morales will fight so hard and endure so much and never consider they're out of it or can't beat their opponent. Then after taking some massive bombs over two or three fights, comes that one punch and it's like a switch being flipped. The beauty is, it takes so much to finally push guys like Arguello and Morales to that point.
I never got to that level as a fighter to experience what Alexis and Erik did. But I went far enough to understand it and know it exist. That experience enables me to easily identify it when I see it.
I see some Aaron Pryor in Pacquiao, excluding that he's a southpaw. They attack in spurts and flurries, they're in, then out, up and down, to the left, then the right. When you think they're right there, you miss and get countered with big shots.
I think he (Pacquiao) is a real pain in the ass for fundamental and structured guys like Morales and even Barrera to a degree. He's all over the place and attacks from so many unconventional angles and positions, structured fighters are somewhat bewildered that a fighter can even be remotely effective that way. Add to that he's a terrific two-handed puncher, makes him a Nightmare.
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