TARNISHED SHOES

By Roger Esty

The talk about knowing when to hang up the gloves. Those old fighters know that they can't recapture the light. Some say they can,but they know when they walk into the gym that the light is gone. Sometimes we believe they can recapture it,but in the end it's always a wash.We want to see their greatness again. So they say that they've got it back . We believe them. It's a fragile faith,but to see that greatness again,that genius that we lived our lives through, is what we want to believe they can recapture. So why do they continue? Some miss the spotlight. Most miss the money. Most know that fighting is all they know in order to make the money.

At the end of his career Denny Moyer knew he could always make a thousand bucks fighting in Nevada. I remember he'd fight on cards at the Silver Slipper. Train more or less in San Diego. Do his share of non training activities, and then fight at the Silver Slipper. In those days a thousand bucks was good money. In those days Denny spent it as fast a ten round fight.

We know he's hurting now. He's got his wife to protect him. He's lucky she's his faith. All those fights in Nevada when he should have been thinking about the consequences. Denny think about consequences? If it crossed his mind,he just set up the bar. Now there's no champagne to drink from the silver slipper.