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A professional athlete is, by literal definition, someone who is paid to
perform in athletic events. Unfortunately, in today's sports world, many
athletes who are paid unimaginable amounts of money, often fail to live up
to a more expanded title of a professional, someone who brings credit to
both the athlete and the sport. Fox Sports TV, on Sunday, featured a
woman, who fits easily into to all facets of the title of professional.
Her name is Layla McCarter.
Layla McCarter has been a professional boxer for over five years and has
been in the ring with the best fighters in the lightweight and junior
welterweight divisions, compiling a 16-9-4 record. She has avoided no one
in her weight class, stepping in with Laura Serrano, Chevelle
Hallback, Tracy Byrd, and Jessica Rakoczy, among others
and each time out, win or lose, McCarter conducts herself with an sense of
true professionalism. She avoids entering the ring with any of the all too
common hoopla of music, flags and other "look at me" encumbrances. For
McCarter there are no "eye catching costumes", she shows up in black
trunks and top and she comes to fight; six, eight, ten rounds. As would
any professional, she comes to do the job she is being paid to do and she
does it with a skill that inevitably earns well deserved praise from those
who understand and appreciate the sport of boxing. When the job is done,
she maintains a professional demeanor, no climbing on the ring ropes, no
"gladiator" salutes, she simply awaits and accepts the decision then moves
on, another job well done. It is a performance that is all too rare in
today's boxing world.
Instead of the "playing to the crowd" histrionics that so many of today's
fighters, both female and male, seem to feel is a necessary part of a
boxing repertoire, McCarter brings to the ring the tools of a skill
learned well through long hours in the gym, instead of in front of
entourage or a bank of microphones. It is a skill she has learned so
thoroughly that the word professional fits easily into any written or
spoken description of Layla McCarter.
On Saturday night in Las Vegas, McCarter was matched against Claudia
Valenciana, a 4-0 fighter who could be best described as an "up and
comer". Valenciana had a win over a tough Mikee Staffford and two KOs to
her credit. She was also reputed to be a "heavy" puncher. Claudia
Valenciana may some day be a fighter to reckon with in the welterweight
division, and if she is, she will undoubtedly recall the McCarter bout as
her "day in college" after the first four bouts "in high school". McCarter
did, indeed, take Valenciana "to school", scoring two knockdowns and an
overwhelming, unanimous decision. Also, as usual, McCarter did it with
class and professionalism. After each knockdown, McCarter touched gloves
with Valenciana and, not once, during the six rounds, although winning
easily, did McCarter do anything to upstage her opponent or seek to bring
attention to herself. She did her job, did it well, did it like a
professional.
McCarter was named "Boxer of the Month" by WBAN in March, 2001, and if
there is ever a competition, for "Professional Fighter of the Month, Year
or Decade", Layla McCarter, in my mind, is an odds on favorite for the
title. The night before the McCarter/Valenciana bout in Las Vegas, Tonya
Harding fought a four round contest with one Emily Gosa in Lincoln City
OR. Harding won a four round decision. Thus, both Tonya Harding and Layla
McCarter emerged as winners in the weekend's boxing action. Its there that
the similarity ends. The comparative analogies that spring to minds are
the easy ones: "Night and Day", "Black and White", but lets just leave it
this way, when comparing Layla McCarter and Tonya Harding, its a case of
"Professional and Not".
Bernie McCoy |
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