know_what_you're_fighting_for raze today the image most people have of max baer probably comes from "cinderella man". craig bierko plays him as a teeth-gnashing monster who brags of having killed men in the ring and fights dirty when things aren't going his way. there's a bit of truth in the film, but it's bent out of shape in a pretty grotesque way to give the story a clear-cut villain and to make russell crowe's james braddock even more sympathetic than he already is. frankie campbell really did die from the beating he took in the ring against baer. but in real life max didn't gloat. he was devastated, weeping at the bedside of his fallen foe, giving money to frankie's surviving family. as for ernie schaaf, he was out on his feet when his corner sent him back out there to get his head knocked off. there are moments in some fights when, as a trainer, you have a choice to make. you see your fighter getting hammered and you know they don't have a chance in hell of winning the fight. you can either stop it and protect them from their own punch-drunk bravery, or you can hold the towel tight to your chest and watch them get pummelled some more, hoping against hope your meal ticket plucks an improbable miracle out of the air. ernie's trainer chose to hug the towel. ernie lost the fight. it's true that five months later a nothing jab from primo carnera put ernie to sleep forever. but it wasn't the accumulated punishment from the baer fight that made the jab deadly. ernie stepped into the ring with his brain swollen from meningitis. he never should have been cleared to fight. that didn't stop people from blaming max, seven decades before ron howard played fast and loose with the facts and blamed him again, kicking sand in the eyes of a ghost. even in the thick stink of tragedy, life isn't without a depraved sense of humour. max fought joe louis in 1935 and was knocked out for the first time in his career. joe had a bit of an unfair advantage in that fight. he was fighting with a third fist hidden under his trunks. he'd been married earlier that day and wanted to get back home to consummate the marriage. joe made quick work of max, knocking him out in the fourth round. then he hightailed it outta there and got naked. 170622 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Fairness, mostly. For myself, the ability to manage without causing undue stress to myself or others. Happiness, but more as a byproduct: I find if you look at it straight on, it dims. (Thank you, three_words in red, for bringing this blathe to light; raze too, for writing it! it was a good title and a good read.) 220708 ... raze i don't know what i was expecting when i clicked on this blathe, but it wasn't my own words. i have no memory of writing this. none. it's hard to believe there was a time when i followed boxing with enough interest to know this stuff, but blather doesn't lie. 220709 what's it to you? who go blather from