LADY AND THE CHAMP

By Roger Esty

Sometimes I think fighters' wives take as much of a beating as their husbands. I could make list,but I'll try this couple. I won't mention the names because it's not important. The expug wasn't a high profile guy. Had his share of fights. During the 50's when there were a slew of fighters, he was somwhere in the middle. That was his average. He never got to the upper tier,but he never languished at the bottom of the barrel either.

If you look at his pan and know anything about sports,you know only a fighter's mug could turn out that way. His wife has been with him from the early days. Now instead of rubbing his sore muscles after a fight,she rubs his hands to get the circulation going. She told me once that she never liked to see her man in the ring. Maybe it was the apprehensive female that worried about his safety.

In the end he came out of it with a face full of scars. Those scars today are faded white lines. The eyelids are droopy. When he smiles a lot of his face doesn't want to take the upswing with the rest of it. It's a little sad to see him smile because all the skin that's hangin' is kind of saying ,"this is what came from all the years of forgetting when to duck."

But I like that face. He didn't pussy foot around. He did a man's thing. He heard the cheers and he heard the boos. His wife was always his best cornerman. She will always be that. She heard the boos at the end too. She's still cheerin'.