A Short Reach To Victory

Legendary boxer Mike Tyson once said, “As long as we preserve and endure, we can get anything we want ” This quote by Mike has meaning to me because currently it is the reason why i’m becoming a real fighter, here’s my story of how I turned my problem into an opportunity. Back around the time I was in my freshman year of high school, I decided I wanted to try a combat sport, this was so that I could get healthier and conquer some more personal issues. I was lucky and about 20 minutes away from my house there was a public boxing gym that my cousin also went to, so I thought that would be my opportunity to join a combat sport. So one day, my cousin and I planned to go there together so I could have a familiar face to workout with, but there were a few problems.

Once we got there, we did the starting workout and went on to do some training with the coaches there, but soon I realized I had a few problems. The fact I was short, shorter than the average boxer for my age meant I had a pretty big height disadvantage. On top of that, I had below average reach which made it impossible to use a lot of common fighting styles without just being simply outmatched. On top of that, cherry of disappointment, I naturally had really bad cardio, so longer fights just didn’t seem possible for me at the time. But even with those problems, I ended up finding a fighting style that was able to fit me. It was a few weeks into boxing when I found myself almost about to quit until I started watching some of Mike Tyson’s fights. Mike is the perfect example of how to change problems into opportunities because he had all the same problems that I had but the difference being he was able to turn them into opportunities. As I continued to watch him fight, I was able to see how he countered his problems, by being aggressive and using a perfected form of the peek-a-boo style. He was able to close the distance and dodge the majority of attacks and by using his raw, unsurpassed power he was able to knock out his opponents before he tired out making him one of the most feared fighters in combat sports history.

After watching Mike Tyson, I decided to adopt his fighting style and to my surprise, it was perfect for me, so much so that it completely rejuvenated my love for fighting and as I got better, the problem started to fade, revealing an opportunity and I started to see my worth as a real fighter. Because of Mike, I was able to overcome my problem and turn it into an opportunity that will keep giving for as long as I do not lose my love for fighting. This problem turned into an opportunity that gave meaning to my life, more than anything has ever had and taught me that there are always other ways around every problem and the fact that problems can offer opportunities. And as of Senior year of high school I am still boxing, still perfecting my own version of Mike’s legendary fighting style, still adding more worth to that same fire that is my love for fighting, and soon that old problem might turn into an even bigger opportunity than I first thought.

“Mike Tyson” by rvthomas67 is licensed under CC BY 2.0