Here's the thing that I assumed anyone who ever played sports would understand:If my team is being dominated by another team, I am not going to stop playing hard. I want to go down swinging. I want to be a man and not give up. I want to show the world that although my skill level may not approach my opponent's skill level, my heart and desire to excel is equal. The LAST thing I want is for my opponent to show me "mercy" or play half speed or kneel down or whatever. I wouldn't go as far as to say I would be insulted by such action (because my opponent is showing kindness, so you can't really be mad at him), but I don't think I'd be happy about it. I come into a match for the love of the competition. That's what this is about right? Two sets of warriors taking the field. If one side dominates, it can dominate with honor. And if one side loses, it can lose with honor. While I am sure intentions may be in the right place, but "going easy" on an opponent does dishonor to both sides, really.
Anyone else picturing Luke getting his butt whipped by Dragline?While fighting the good fight can sometimes be laudable, there are instances where continuing to fight against all odds reveals a serious mental/emotional defect.
It's funny, my thought process is all over the place with this one. Some random thoughts:From my amature boxing days, every once in a while I would find myself in a fight where one of us was clearly, clearly overmatched. Amature boxing is funny, because the way it work, where some boxing club in some podunk town in will host a fight night, and local clubs from across the state will drive up with their guys and put their names on a list to fight. You could theoretically have a 25 year old guy with 80 fights against a 19 year old kid with 5 fights. The coaches are supposed to protect their kids, but some coaches just aren't very good. I've been on both ends. A couple memories come to my mind.I remember once fighting some kid who I was obviously better than, but who refused to go down. There is one clear memory that is burned into my head where I hit him with a couple of combinations, then took a step back, and there was about a half second where he just kind of stood there with his hands up. I looked at the ref with a "what should I do?" look and he motioned for me to keep going, which I did. The ref called the fight soon after that. Every once in a while I wonder what was going through the ref's mind, the other fighter's mind, and the other corner's mind.I also remember fighting, sometime in the mid 90s, a world class guy obviously over my skill level (David Reid, for those that know boxing). I didn't know who he was at the time, and I only had maybe 10 fights behind me, all against local kids in local fights near me. In the first round he absolutely pummelled me. It fealt like was hitting me with 5 different hands from 10 different directions. At some point during the round, I stopped trying to hit him and just tried to survive. After the first round, in the corner, my coach told me he was going to stop the fight. I begged him not to. I don't know why, but it was really, really important that I make it through. He told me that if I stopped punching, if I stopped fighting back, he'd stop the fight. I eventually made it all three rounds, and I guess it would have been ok with me if my coach stopped it against my wishes, but I needed it to be clear to him that it would have been against my wishes. If that makes any sense. Now, I don't know if my opponent went easy on my in the second or third round, but I hope he didn't. It is one of the fights that I am most proud of, taking somebody's best and not giving up. If I knew he took it easy on me, or had mercy on me, that fight wouldn't have been as special to me.This post doesn't really have anything to do with this thread, but Christo's post brought these memories back. God, it sucks getting old, doesn't it?