Consistency- even better than motivation
Of course Motivation can do wonders if the required Action is put in place. Merely walking into the ring with high motivation would only get your teeth knocked out in the first round.
Take the case of the boxing fight between, James Buster Douglas and Iron Mike Tyson. The fight is often called the fight which is often illustrated to show what Consistency can do to a Man, even though all of the odds are stacked against him.
Fight took place in Japan-with Japanese girls all over Mike
The fight took place in Japan, the fight was written off even before it got started. For all of the then leading sports greats, have concluded that Tyson would knock the gut out of James Buster Douglas.
The pre-fight interviews and advertisements, all of which humiliated Douglas, and some even advised him against fighting Mike Tyson. Some of the talk shows took Mike to such levels that he was flying high in the skies with the Motivation pep talks that he had received.
The Odds were, 22 to 1, in Mikes favor
When asked for odds in favor of Iron Mike, 99 percent of sports writers and correspondents placed it at 22 to 1. It is imperative to understand that, with such levels of astounding motivation, even the smallest dog would win the fight.
But No! This reminds us of the 6 day war that Israel fought against the Powerful Islamic nations, headed by Egypt and supported by Turkey. All thought the war would be finished even before it got started and that Israel would be annihilated. They were all correct, except that Israel won.
In reacting to Israel’s victory, one quote was popularly mentioned, “In a dog fight, It is not the size of the dog that matters, but the size of the fight in a dog that matters”
Truly, the same can be said about the fight between Buster Douglas and Iron Mike. Iron Mike was in the skies, James, a poor worm, that was waiting to be crushed.
Mike focused more into learning Japanese, rather than training
With so much pomp and favor, Mike, lands in Japan, as fondly remembered by one of the then Sports journalist of the time, Mike was ambushed by a sea of pretty Japanese women, and the next thing people see, Iron Mike being carried away by the Japanese Tsunami of girls.
It was said, every night until the day of the fight, Mike, enjoyed the honey laden Japanese flowers so much that he started speaking Japanese.
On the contrary, when Buster Douglas landed in Japan, except for his agent and his Japanese hosts along with some Sports writers, none were present to welcome the future hero. “It was disheartening to see”, recollects one journalist.
Rain or Shine, Buster hits the road
When the next day dawned, James hits the road, 4 am in the morning, takes his jog, warms up and heads to the gym accompanied by his trainer, and there he trains and trains hard, hits and hits hard. No press interviews, no trash talks and no photo shoots. The rising star stays down in humility until the time arrives for the Metal to shine and blaze its potency.
While Mike, with all of America backing him for Victory, steps into the ring, with little to no training, Don, Mike’s promoter confidently proclaims that the fight would be over in the very first round, and Mike would win. But this time none of Don’s predictions worked.
The Fight begins, with Iron Mike, assuming that Victory was his
The fight commenced, with Iron Mike now more confident that he has victory in his pockets, launches a frontal attack, Buster knows his moves, for night and day, all he did was to study Iron Mike. Buster, with a swift slide and move action, launches his powerhouse jab and a upper cut and then goes for the kill with a left hook.
Iron Mike, hits the floor, grasps for his mouth guard and with a dance of a drunkard high on rum, goes to face Buster, but the Referee injects and says, “Mike, your Iron is split, better let me help you to relieve you out of this misery, and salvage at least some of your last remaining honor”
Moral-Keep going, even if the odds are against you, one day you will rise
Mike listens. Buster wins. The undergo wins. Buster’s consistency in training has shown to the world no matter who your opponents be, if you have the will to keep on, keeping on, you will win, even if your opponent was, Iron Mike Tyson.
That saw, Iron Mike Tyson’s exists from glory. It was not much about the loss, but the Humiliation. It is often reported that Cocky fighters after one single loss, never muster their courage to return. They lay down and rot, letting decay to set in. That was exactly what happened to Iron Mike. If you were to look at Mike’s career just after the fight, it was a downward slope. Mike, never mustered his courage, and got his acts together.
A prominent Sports Journalist remarked after the fight, ‘when everybody said that Iron Mike would win, I said, No way! The reason, though Mike is good boxer and knocks even the best fighter out, but his versatility depended on his Training and Consistency. He is not a gifted fighter as everybody thought him to be so. Take him out of training for week, and he wouldn’t be able to punch a sitting duck”
Stay consistent, stay focused, and don’t worry about your opponent.