My Saturday night adventure with my hero!

I was having a Blehh day today! Do you ever have those? You wake up feeling blehh, too tired from the weekend to drag yourself out of bed BUT you have to of course, the house is a pigsty, you're feeling overwhelmed and once you start looking there's no end of things that can contribute to THAT blehh feeling. It's a beautiful day but when you look out the window, all you can see is your overgrown garden and your washing STILL hanging on the line. And WHO used the last of the milk AND put the empty bottle back in the fridge. Now I have to have cream in my coffee. Yes, I've even resorted to coffee.




THAT was before. But I've been sitting here, browsing blogs and looking at pretty pictures, a cool breeze is blowing through the window, I can hear birds in the trees AND the coffee has kicked in. And I've been thinking about my post I'm going to write and how it inspires me.....

because I want to tell you all about - MY HERO!

Mitch, of course!

I wrote here about when Mitch won the Cruiser weight Title for boxing. Well, a bloke in Caloundra who had the Heavyweight Title asked Mitch if he wanted to challenge him for it. Mitch ummed and aahed, because that would be fighting above his weight division and he wanted to minimise his chances of getting hurt. But the lure of the belt was tempting and so Mitch agreed, as long as the guy dropped down to 90kg.

The fight was on Saturday night and I went along with some friends to watch. It was an experience, that's for sure. It was the main event of the night and they didn't get in the ring until after 10:30pm and by that time a lot of the crowd were really rowdy because they'd been drinking for 4 hours. The majority were there to support the other fighter, Matt, and I've never experienced such hostility and bad sportsmanship. It's not my scene at all. The girls were all skanky looking with cleavage showing and short skirts and the guys were all duded up and just idiots. The other fights I had been to weren't like that. They were more about the sportsmanship.

Mitch was the first to walk to the ring and they all started booing him and hurling abuse. Mitch said it didn't bother him but I was horrified. Then Matt, whose nickname was the Italian Stallion (original, huh!), came bounding in, with the Rocky music playing and really showing off. He was expecting an easy fight because Mitch was lighter and about 15 years older but I think he was a bit taken aback by how determined and GOOD Mitch was. He was a good fighter too but you could see him starting to panic a bit and getting agro because he was getting frustrated. After showing off in front of all of his friends, he had a lot to lose. That's when it all got "interesting".

Just before the bell went for the end of the first round, Mitch happened to land a shot on Matt's jaw. Now when the bell goes, the fighters pull apart and start walking back to their corner. Mitch had turned around to head back when Matt bounded up beside him and punched him on the side of the head, a good 10 seconds AFTER the bell had gone. I was furious. Lots of people jumped up and started shouting but unbelievably a lot of them were hurling abuse at Mitch. I've never seen a nastier crowd. (In fact, I heard one other boxer say he hates fighting in Caloundra because it's so "dirty".) Mitch, however, was great. He didn't even lose his temper. He gave Matt a mocking bow, as if to say sarcastically, "Aren't you a noble fighter," then calmly walked back to his corner.

They discussed stopping the fight (I think it should have been an instant disqualification) but continued, I think, as it was the main fight that everyone had come to see. But for the next 3 rounds, Matt kept getting pulled up for holding Mitch down and for trying to knee him twice. I was in the front row watching but by the third round I got up and went to stand at the back with my friends because I was getting upset....not at Mitch getting punched because he was doing beautifully but at the hostility in the crowd. It's crowds like that and fighters like Matt who give boxing the bad reputation. It was such an emotional fight that I was all trembly and weak by the end of it.

Outrageously, the judges ended up awarding the fight to Matt, a split decision, meaning one judge thought Mitch ought to have won and two saying Matt won. But even the referee said to Mitch that he should have won. (They judge it on points.) They say it's hard to win a belt off someone, that you have to beat them really convincingly, especially in their home territory. But you know what, Mitch didn't mind that much, because he knew he had fought well. and honourably.

And that's what makes him my hero. He didn't lose his temper, he didn't resort to dirty tactics to retaliate, he just boxed well which is what it's all about to him, and just outshone the character of the other boxer. Matt, in trying to make himself look better made himself look cowardly and Mitch like a hero. Many people came up to Mitch after the fight, congratulating him, saying he should have won the fight, respecting him for the sportsmanship he displayed. And I think that's what will stay in the minds of many people who watched that night, that it didn't end up being a matter of who won or lost, but who showed the greater moral character.

P.S. I just watched an item on the Sunshine Coast news that they had on the fight and it was so biased it makes me mad. They edited it to make Mitch look bad and interviewed Matt who was accusing Mitch of low blows and dirty tactics. It had Matt saying that he had challenged Mitch to a rematch (that's true) and that it was an easy fight and could knock him out in 2 rounds. What a $*#!. Mitch said he could have fought another 6 rounds afterwards whereas Matt was totally puffed by the end. Fume, fume!