Unsurprised At Curie

I sat at the second ring to judge fights when I arrived at the second and last day of the Chicago City-Wide Boxing Tournament.  During one of the matches, I overheard one of the officials stating that the fighters from LaFollette Park didn't show up.  The fighters from the North Lawndale Boxing League who were "representing" LaFollette were nowhere to be found.  I just shook my head, but I wasn't very surprised.  Based on what I observed of Derek's fighters last spring, I didn't get a sense there was much motivation to stick to things and finish them.  I deal with enough of that with the youths who actually are, for lack of a better word, eligible to sign up at the field house.  

Maybe there was some resentment over the poor showing of Derek's fighters on Tuesday.  I haven't forgotten the reports of those fighters throwing fits because they didn't get to take home winners' trophies last spring.  The people they were supposed to fight last night got walkovers, which means they automatically received belts because their opponents didn't show up.  Most fighters would rather win by participating in actual matches, not by default.  I haven't heard any fallout from the coaches of those fighters as of this writing.  If I do, I'm going to direct them to take up their complaints to Thomas.  After all, Derek's fighters are not officially mine.

The bouts went faster than they did on Tuesday.  Several of them were stopped by both Thomas and Gerald, who took turns being the referee of the fights in the ring where I was sitting near.  I recognized a kid, Jordan, who fights out of Portage Park.  I was impressed by his actions after he lost his match; no bad attitude whatsoever.  He immediately shook the hand of the other youth and complimented him.  Too many of the other kids who didn't do well were rolling their eyes and frowning up.  One guy threw his hand up in a gesture that said, "Really?  How did the other guy win?"  Another kid walked off in a huff after his hand wasn't raised, and Gerald had to call him back to pick up the second place trophy.

Another tournament is over.  I keep hearing that Derek's fighters will eventually have a gym opened up for them at one of the field houses.  I hope so.