Five Things Folks Don’t Know About Boxing and Why Boxers Make Great Literary Characters...Sometimes

The Femmes Fatales welcome Tom Schreck!  Tom writes the Duffy Dombrowski Mysteries and his newest release The Vegas Knockout will be available on May 15. Visit www.tomschreck.com and “like” his fan page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DuffyDombrowski for a chance to win a Kindle Fire.  Tom, take it away!

My series’ protagonist is a low-level pro fighter who happens to also have a small- time human services job during the day. He winds up in the amateur sleuth role protecting the vulnerable and often self-defeating people on his caseload.

Some readers find this an implausible combination but in reality it is quite common. In fact most of what you know about fighters is wrong and most of what is written falls into horrible cliché. I work as a pro boxing official and I spend a lot of time in boxing gyms still climbing between the ropes to mix it up a little.

Here are five things that most people don’t get about fighters and why it makes them interesting.

1. The Pay is Horrible—Sure, Floyd Mayweather made $34 million dollars last Saturday night fighting but he falls into the less than 1%. Most fighters at your local pro shows make $200 per round of boxing. For a four round fight they get their $800 with $160 going to a manager and $80 going to the cornermen.

Sometimes the fighter doesn’t get paid at all because their manager had to pay to get them on the fight card. A manager might do this to get their fighter a win.

Think how much you would have to love getting punched to accept that kind of cash.

2. Almost Anyone Can Be a Pro Fighter-  Unlike any other sport entering boxing’s pro ranks merely requires a physical and a $50 processing fee. This means there are some awful pro fighters out there who have made really bad vocational choices.

For the fans this means a wide disparity in the quality of pro boxing shows. It also means witnessing some really bad beatings.

3. There’s a Huge Bullshit Factor – People exaggerate their boxing experience and the general public has no clue. Sometimes you’ll hear “I fought in the Golden Gloves.” like that means instant credibility. The GG has a subnovice division for competitors with less than 3 bouts. Sometimes only one other fighter enters the tournament so the one fight in that division will be for the “title.” Sometimes a 16 year old kid has to fight a 32 year old man. Playing that off like you won the Olympics is a bit disingenuous.

Others will say, “I fought in the service.” That can mean a very high level of boxing or it can mean boxing was part of a PE requirement and may or may not have included any sparring.

You want to know how much someone was into boxing? Ask them what weight they fought at. Fighters are obsessed with making weight limits and they will be able to tell you to the pound.

4. Fighters Get Scared—The notion that fighters are fearless or immune to pain is ridiculous. Many fighters vomit in the dressing room before fights and many find reasons why they have to cancel fights. I don’t blame them but the literary world sometimes plays it like fighters are combative robots who can put emotion to the side. They can’t. Some manage it better than others but the ones who say they have no fear are liars.

5. Fighters Are Filled With Angst—Actually some are but then again so are some golfers. Fighters who try to sublimate the woes in their life usually get their asses kicked unless they spend years training and by then the angst has been replaced with a workmanlike attitude. Once you get proficient and have logged your hours it’s not about anger or depression, it’s about competition.

To me the truth about boxing makes it more interesting. Like any good writing, fiction that has a boxing story line looks at the complexities of why someone fights, how they live with it and how they blend it into their day. There is emotion and there is adversity but it is far different than the clichés we are usually presented with.

Comments

[Dana]

Thanks for blogging with the Femmes Fatales, Tom! Having trained with some boxers, I found this really interesting; it 's always fun to see behind the scenes. And I think most people think about fighters the way they do of writers: they hear "writer" and think "Stephen King-"grade money and fame.

Best of luck with the book!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Hey, Tom! Thanks so much for being here..I have to say--I don't get boxing.

I sat, open-mouthed, at Raging Bull. A terrific movie, but it takes such a different brain to be a fighter.

I love the weight question though--its like hey say you can know if someone is really clean and sober by asking how long--a real recovering addict will know to the day.

Good luck with your book! The cover is terrific.

[Elaine Viets]

Thanks for stopping by, Tom. Your blog is as informative as it is fascinating. Good luck with the book.

[Tom]

Thanks SO much for having me!

[krisneri]

Thanks for blogging with the Femmes, Tom. Fascinating stuff! After watching a few Rocky movies, we think we know how it works. Thanks for sharing the true picture.

[Donna Andrews]

Tom, I'm still trying to get my mind around the idea of getting whacked in the head for $200 a round. I will stop complaining about how tough we writers have it. Playing "The Boxer" in your honor on my iTunes tonight (both the Simon and Garfunkel version and the Gypsy Wanderers cover.)