In life, there a very few things that are certain. Death and taxes…and shaping your kids preference in what sports to play and teams to like. At least until they can make their own opinion. However until then, parents are able to pretty much dictate what teams and sports their children like and usually play.
As a proud parent of a 3 year old, like many other parents that cherish certain moments in their children’s lives there are moments none of use ever forget. Learning to ride a bike, losing a first tooth, first day of school and a number of other things throughout their lifetime.
Perhaps considering a child’s first fight as something silly but this past weekend I had the opportunity to take my son to his first fight. While I always thought that it would be a Vegas fight, being able to take him to the first major fight in a newly opened arena is something in the future we can look back on and view it as history.
While the fights them self may not have been historic or memorable, being able to share the night with my son was special. Yes, I consider my sons first fight special. This is a sport that I have a passion for, a sport that for over the last decade I have been able to attend numerous fights live. When I look back on the fights I have been able to see, I have many great memories, a trilogy (Pacquiao-Morales), De La Hoya put into retirement, knockout of the year (Martinez-Williams) and more brawls in the stands then there should ever be.
These fights have also been memorable because I have been able to attend many of them with my older brother and a good majority with my father. I have not lived near them for quite some time yet Vegas and big fights are our get together-It’s a passion that we got because of our father.
As kids we had the chance to see the likes of Hagler, Hearns, Tyson Leonard, Arguello and many others in the 80’s. That chance was because of our dad was a fan; Perhaps he never meant for my brother and I to become boxing fans but we have.
Now being a father myself, I have the opportunity to introduce my son to boxing. Will he grow up and have the same passion as myself? I don’t know. Will I push him to love boxing? No, he will be able to make that choice in due time, but for now and for the foreseeable future he seems to enjoy the things that I like. So for the time being my son is a boxing fan along with a rockies, broncos, nuggets and wrestling (collegiate not WWE)
Either way, no matter if he becomes a passionate fan or perhaps tries boxing himself is anyone’s guess (I think wrestling is more likely). In the end, I had the opportunity to take him to his first big fight. It may be the only fight he ever goes to and that will be fine . I can always keep that memory with me, but if this is just the beginning to something bigger, that would be great too, because just as I was able to share boxing with my son, my dad was there to share it with his grandson and myself and that is something I know neither of us will forget.