Power in Small Packages: Rocky Marciano & Mike Tyson

Boxing, or any form of fighting, is life broken down into 3-minute rounds.

Life is truly lived when we experience both highs and lows, triumph and failure. Happiness isn’t as appreciated if we haven’t already experienced pain or sadness. Success isn’t as satisfying if it isn’t preceded by failure. In a fight, there are moments where you question if you have ‘it’, where you think about finding a way out, an easier path than the one you have chosen. Just like pain, suffering, and failure help us become better fighters, they also help us develop character and become better people.

Adversity is a part of fighting, and a part of life. Accepting it and appreciating it can lead to greatness in either realm.

Rocky Marciano was a fighter, he wasn’t just a boxer. He took a punch to land a punch. He walked forward when most would take a step back. As such, he will go down as one of the greatest Legends the fight game has ever seen.

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Fighter Training: Progression Sets

Marvin Hagler

No fighter prepares for a 30 second knockout. Just like no one in their right mind expects success in business within 30 days of starting a company, or to find their dream girl within 30 days of deciding that this is what they now want.

Each of those things do happen. But no one with a true desire to succeed in anything prepares for the best possible outcome. No, we prepare for the long haul. We prepare, work, and struggle to do everything in our power to ensure the best possible outcome, knowing that nothing is handed to us.

And so, we train to get stronger as time goes on. We train our body, mind, and spirit to get stronger when it gets down to crunch time. When nothing seems to be going our way we have put the work in to be prepared for the struggle. We train for the championship rounds. We work harder, perform better, and get stronger as the fight goes on.

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Are You A Fighter?

Joe Louis. Fighter.

Fighters aren’t born. Fighters are created.

A fighter is created out of circumstance. He’s moulded from his ability to rise from the depths of despair. Chiselled from hardship and spawned from his ability to, no, his desire to push forward and never relent.

A fighter isn’t only found in the ring, or in the cage. A fighter can be found in your own home. My Mother is a fighter. My Nonna is a fighter. And my Dad is a fighter. My grandparents were fighters because they looked fear, despair, and hardship in the eye, and met it with determination, sacrifice, and even a smile.

An article entitled, “It’s time to Man-Up,” was supposed to be where these words are now. But I realized what “man-ing up” really is. It’s fighting.

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Fight Training: 24′s

What set’s a Legendary fighter apart from a good fighter, or even the average guy?

It’s not necessarily more talent, although it helps. It ain’t a head start in life, that’s for sure. It’s a combination of hunger and a will to succeed, as well as some Legendary training. Even in fictional character’s like Rocky, it was his training that pushed him to beat more talented guys like Apollo Creed and physically superior guys like Ivan Drago or even Mason Dixon.

Rocky Marciano had read that Joe Louis – probably the greatest heavyweight of all time – ran 6 miles a day. Rocky, knowing that he didn’t have the talent that Joe possessed, figured he had to run double that. And he did. He also went on to knockout his hero, albeit Joe was in the midst of a comeback and far from his prime.

Marciano is a Legend because of his heart. As are Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward. Guys who didn’t have the most talent in the world, but who’s heart couldn’t be matched. Marvin Haggler, James Braddock, and the recently deceased Smokin’ Joe Frazier are also Legends who didn’t have the talent that other’s had, but achieved greatness due to their heart, work ethic, and hunger.

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