
Fight - wallflower
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/sports/boxing-youngstown-anthony-taylor-hamzah-aljahmi.html
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padobson
_Youngstown was a pugnacious steel city of 167,000 when Loew was born, with
boxing clubs anchored in many neighborhoods. [...] A half-century later,
Youngstown is down to a population of 65,000, a hemorrhaging of 100,000 people
caused by steel-plant closings, a failure to diversify and the absence, so
far, of a sustainable second act._

This is a fairly common story in the fighting world. The strength it takes to
literally get punched in the face and keep moving forward is built as much by
life circumstance as training.

I live in Warren, OH, about 10 minutes from Taylor's home. I moved back here
after I graduated in college in 2008. While building my career as a developer,
I spent time working in a call center and breaking down cardboard on an
assembly line at a local automotive plant.

In those places, the lack of hope is thick in the air. Attitudes are negative,
humor is sarcastic and caustic, and dreams are sparse. Just about every
business around here has it. Poor service is expected and understandable,
frustration is inevitable, and poverty is cyclical.

It's a common story in the rust belt. Hopes and dreams are one of Warren's
biggest exports - college graduates who never return, pro athletes who don't
look back, and successful entrepreneurs who struggle to find markets and
skilled labor in the city limits to re-invest their fortunes. Instead they
make donations. Their new businesses are built elsewhere. You'll count as many
missions and soup kitchens downtown as you will shops and restaurants.

Hamzah Aljahmi and Anthony Taylor are both tragic figures. Aljahmi was killed
pursuing his dream, while Taylor's dreams, undeterred by his physical deficits
and crushing poverty, are now forever tainted. Like so many other would-be
dreamers in Warren, he'll have to fight off the encroaching bitterness or risk
being consumed by it. If that happens, his best scenario is a few acidy laughs
on an assembly line. If he overcomes this tragedy, his best case scenario is
escape to a fighting life in Las Vegas.

I'll be rooting for him. I hope to watch him on pay-per-view someday. In the
meantime, I'll be here, programming remotely, spending my spare cycles
daydreaming about solutions to the despair of our common hometown.

~~~
somberi
From Bruce Springsteen's "Youngstown" -

Seven hundred tons of metal a day

Now sir you tell me the world's changed

Once I made you rich enough

Rich enough to forget my name

(1)[http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/brucespringsteen/youngstown.h...](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/brucespringsteen/youngstown.html)

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luso_brazilian
A beautiful read. A barely related event is the fighter that chose to tap out
(signaling that he gave up) instead of knocking out his clearly inferior
opponent (and risk injuring him or causing permanent damage).

The commentary along with the video can be seen here [1] and it's refreshing
to see that people still have empathy and care about others.

[1] [http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/5/21/5736360/morning-
report-...](http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/5/21/5736360/morning-report-ufc-
fighter-taps-out-dana-white-faber-ludwig-cormier-henderson-renzo-gracie-mma-
news)

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pizza
As someone with a concussion right now, it fucking sucks. Nausea, headaches,
difficulty 'connecting-the-dots' with thoughts. I tried stepping outside today
to fetch something I left in the car yesterday, and it was like turning on the
lights to go to the bathroom after waking up in the middle of the night.
Forget doing homework or reading those Greg Egan books I just got..

1 month down, (hopefully only) 2 more to go before post-concussion syndrome
goes away..

~~~
wlievens
Egan doesn't sound like the stuff you want to read when your brain is not in a
great shape :)

~~~
pizza
Not gonna lie, I made it through the first chapter of Schild's ladder -
slowly, but at least I tried. Then I tried reading the second chapter, and
that's when I realized I should just save it for when I'll better
appreciate/remember it..

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gwintrob
Looks like a beautiful article. Saved to Pocket. It would be pretty cool if
NYTimes changed their app to better support this long-form content or maybe
let you save articles to Kindle.

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ars
Very short summary: One of the fighters died.

This is an emotional/touching story so read it for that if you like that. If
all you care about is the bare facts, then that's the summary.

Personally I just skimmed it picking up random sentences here and there.

~~~
paulpauper
As violent as boxing is, it's very rare for fighters to die. Same for
Football. Mountain climbing, rock climbing, downhill skiing and snowboarding
are more dangerous, but the dangers get much less media attention than the
attention over football concussions.

~~~
dsharlet
There's no way that those other sports are more dangerous than boxing. That's
ludicrous. About 5-10 people die per year from boxing [1], while about 1 in
1.06 million people die per day of skiing [2]. That same source estimates that
1 in 1.2 million boxers die _per minute_ in the ring.

1\.
[http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth_a_0700.htm](http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth_a_0700.htm)

2\. [https://www.nsaa.org/media/68045/NSAA-Facts-About-Skiing-
Sno...](https://www.nsaa.org/media/68045/NSAA-Facts-About-Skiing-Snowboarding-
Safety-10-1-12.pdf)

~~~
fdanconia
I've read that bare knucke boxing has lower death rates compared to
traditional boxing due to the addition of gloves.

FORCE = MASS X ACCELERATION.

The extra mass is something the skull and brain cannot take. Also, the
protection of the weapon (hands) assures fights go on linger than in bare
knucke boxing. There is conflicting evidence however.

~~~
CydeWeys
The point of boxing gloves is to protect your hands, not your opponent's
brain. Hands aren't meant for punching, and repeatedly smacking them with
great force into the hard skull of your opponent can easily damage them.

I suspect bare knuckle boxing is less satisfying (and thus less popular)
because fights can end merely because one person can no longer effectively
attack, rather than when one person is conclusively defeated by being knocked
out. The KO is always the most widely satisfying finish in boxing and MMA.

~~~
13of40
> Hands aren't meant for punching

Actually...

[http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-human-
fi...](http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-human-fist-
punching-evolution-males--20151021-story.html)

~~~
CydeWeys
Very interesting. That's a hypothesis from just last year that doesn't yet
have widespread scientific support though, so the jury's now out.

