In the middle of the ring, you feel alone.
A silence in your ears. It's just you and the beat that you feel inside.
The heart still beats in accelerated rhythms.
You hit and you feel the impact.
You feel the pain for the other.
Confidence rises.
You hear your name.
Repeatedly.
It is the public that calls for you.
You do not know where you hide the force.
That force that seems to be generated by each beat.
The beat that comes inside your body.
The beat you feel when you knock on your opponent.
But you know it's more than that.
This force is generated for all the things of your life.
The battles of every day.
Against time, which seems to be lacking when you need to train.
Against the daily struggles.
It is not always easy, being a foreigner in a country that saw you grow.
Growing up with friends from the neighborhood, and in the street.
Against the scarce support, human and financial.
Some people train hard to fight.
But not you.
You were born to fight.
"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision." - Muhammad Ali
The Beat Inside
Matosinhos, Portugal
© 2015 Igor Martins