People who actually love and care about the champion are shunned, shut out, blocked, expelled, and discarded. They are now persona non grata, who can’t get close to the top table, let alone the bubble littered with its baubles.
Time passes, successes in the ring end, skills diminish, new hungry fresh talents arrive, young and strong, until one day… it’s all over. The former champion wakes up, the bubble has burst, and everyone who was in it has disappeared, taking everything with them. All spent and long gone.
There is no more money, but there are mounting debts, the public turns away and applauds someone else, so thereafter, begins a life full of depression, loneliness and the only thing which linger are fading memories of those great days of glory in the ring.
I am hopeful that this scalding phenomenon is losing steam. I see fighters who are more aware, better prepared, more savvy and surrounded by good people. This must also be planned, viable and achievable via the path of education, before it is too late.
Today there is a high speed, fast track vehicle; Just as it can transport you to the top, it can also destroy you: It is SOCIAL MEDIA; Twitter (X), Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and many others; What is published there stays for eternity, as there is no turning back. The comments and responses have no filter and just as they can praise you, they can also target, attack and besmirch you without mercy, often cloaked in anonymously and in a cowardly back stabbing way. The comments become highly offensive, biased, obnoxious, wound and savage, There is harassment and systematic, unrelenting bullying attack.
If a boxer does not know how to interact on networks, he or she should stay well away from them. The attacks are growing. Those targeted do everything to combat them and to prove things that do not need verification or justification, because they are false and campaigns are only carried out to pierce and harm mental health.
Unfortunately we live in a world in which value is measured by the number of followers and likes one has on social networks.
Ryan García became popular by having millions of followers on social media. He became an immediate product of great interest to promoters and TV.
It is also social media that has led him to a critical point and plight.
It is known that Ryan has struggled with mental health issues for many years; These problems have even led him to leave boxing on a couple of occasions. Today he is spiraling in free-fall, and he needs to accept the help that people who love him can offer.
Julio César Chávez, the great Mexican champion, seeks to support him, because he himself lived through, suffered and endured hell for many years, and he overcame this. It proves that a person can be cured. We all suffer from mental health problems; It is a silent, stealthy disease that has many variants; anxiety, depression, lowered self-esteem, paranoia and many other modalities, ranging from very simple and manageable to levels bordering on suicide.
It is difficult to take the first step, but in so doing, everything changes, and there is a solution. Talk, get your fears and worries out in the open. It could be with a trusted friend, or with specialized therapists, take medication, in short, seek help to heal.
We can all help once we realize what a sufferer is going through concerning mental health problems; from a smile, a friendly chat and a hug, to taking action and helping to find solutions.
DID YOU KNOW…?
The boxer lives a very complicated life and adding to the stigma and dogma that men must be strong, macho, silent and endure everything, they do not cry or show the slightest weakness or human frailty. Added to this phenomenal, the sheer physical work that it all entails.Thousands of rounds of sparring, countless days separated from their families, enduring spartan conditions to be prepared to climb into the ring, putting physical integrity at risk.