"Do you have to ask?" he said, amiably.
Fight Night
At 1 p.m. on fight day, Witherspoon sat at a desk in his room and ate meat and mashed potatoes from a Styrofoam box that he had carried back from the Rose. He shared the room with Soileau, who was under the covers and watching "ElimiDate" on TV. Occasionally Soileau would express disagreement about someone who had been eliminated, detailing attributes of the ousted party.
Witherspoon was talking about home and trying to keep calm. He had kept waking up during the night.
Yul Witherspoon, a heavyweight boxer brought in to face young fighters on the rise, puts up with long journeys and hardships to stay in the sport.
(Jonathan Newton - The Washington Post)
|
| __ On Our Site __
• More photos of Yul Witherspoon's journey from Louisiana to his bout against up-and-comer Chazz Witherspoon.
| | |
|
"Louisiana is crazy," he said.
"Louisiana is crazy," Soileau agreed, "but you can get good crayfish."
"I don't want to get anxious too soon," Witherspoon said. "I'm wondering if I'm going to be toward the end [of the card] or the beginning. I like to go later, get a feeling for it."
Most boxers like to talk, and most have no trouble relating what kind of damage they intend to inflict. Not Witherspoon. "I've got to make up something I don't like about this guy [Chazz Witherspoon]," he said. "We keep seeing each other; I'm waiting for him to bump into me. I've got to have a little animosity toward him."
Soileau: "Beat his [butt] like a big brother."
At home, Witherspoon and Soileau spar together.
Soileau: "Yul hits like a mule. I can't get inside because he keeps jabbing. He's 'Yul the Mule.' "
Witherspoon: "The mule is very slow and not too smart. I don't like the name."
Soileau: "But if it kicks . . . "
Witherspoon: "I don't want to be 'Yul the Mule.' "
That evening, the van delivered the Louisiana group to Michaels Eighth Avenue for the latest in the series called "Ballroom Boxing." There was no dressing room; a hallway was partitioned for privacy by green curtains. One section was given to Witherspoon, Soileau and Mario Lacey, a 132-pounder out of Mobile, Ala., with a 7-7 record. They changed in a rest room, had their hands wrapped and waited, three men in a small space, more anxious than astronauts bound for the moon.
