“Pascal and Donaire are proof we are eager undertakers, too quick to label as finished a fighter only a few fights away from surprising us. Why? Perhaps because witnessing the end of something appeals in the same way that witnessing a beginning does. The desire to share in history, even as a spectator, is a strong one—one underlying our preoccupations with lists, rankings, intergenerational comparisons. These activities are done to exalt the past, true, but just as frequently they serve the present and, by extension, those living in it. We want to participate in a special time, whether because it marked the birth of something historic or the end is of secondary importance.”
Read: Die Hard: On Jean Pascal, Nonito Donaire, and Roman Gonzalez on Hannibal Boxing.
In Between Rounds 