Boxing: A Thin Line Between Joy and Sorrow

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Joy.

Sorrow.

They are two vastly contrasting emotions, sometimes separated by mere slivers of time. The difference can be as relatively insignificant as the line between winning and losing an athletic contest; it can be as stark and unforgiving as the fragile boundary between life and death. The boxing world experienced each extreme within a four-hour period, from 10 p.m. on Friday in a packed banquet room in midtown Manhattan to a darkened bedroom in Lindenwold, New Jersey, at 2 a.m., maybe 100 miles away.

Noted boxing photographer Tom Casino is alive, not quite fully well but getting better -- reason for a packed house at the 91st annual Boxing Writers Association of America Awards Dinner, staged at the world-famous Copacabana, to erupt in happy applause. A few hours later, when the BWAA revelers for the most part had turned in for the night, Jack Obermayer, boxing’s ultimate marathon man, saw his remarkable journey come to an end when he grudgingly succumbed to liver cancer at 72.

Approximately 25 hours after he accepted his Bill Crawford Award for “courage in overcoming adversity” on Saturday, Casino, 60, again was at ringside, camera in hand, shooting one of the best fights of the year, in which WBA middleweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman retained his title on a close but unanimous decision over determined challenger Shawn “Showtime” Porter. It was a historic occasion, the first primetime, over-the-air boxing broadcast on CBS since the first Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks bout on Feb. 2, 1978. It was an occasion for celebration made even more so by Casino’s presence, in a professional sense, for the first time since the Joel Diaz Jr.-Tyler Asselstine bout on May 16, 2014.

“Tom told me that when he was at his bleakest moments, lying in that hospital, his dream was to return to the boxing arena,” said Showtime Vice President of Creative Services Earl Fash, who served as Casino’s presenter at the BWAA Awards Dinner. “He envisioned seeing his name printed on that little sticker marking his place on the ring apron -- neutral corner, shooting across from the champion’s corner. That’s what kept him alive, that visual; and on Saturday night, he looked at me and said, ‘Earl, it’s a dream come true.’”

However, even the brightest of clouds can have a dark lining, and Casino’s return from his own near-death experience -- complicated and delicate back surgery in 2014, followed by a pulmonary embolism and a debilitating stomach virus called c.diff -- served as a reminder that every fight that has a winner must also include a loser. In a manner of speaking, the same bid to restore a better quality of life and even to maintain life itself that has seen the widely admired Casino turn a corner saw the scales balanced by the departure of the similarly respected Obermayer. He was in the house for an astounding 3,514 pro fight cards covering 400-plus venues in 49 states (he never made it to Alaska) from March 13, 1963 (Cassius Clay-Doug Jones at the old Madison Square Garden) to June 4, 2016 (Derrick Webster-Lenwood Dozier in Bristol, Pennsylvania).

We are all movable and replaceable parts on an earthly stage that is a constant jumble of hellos and goodbyes. During the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s four-day induction festivities from June 9-12 in Canastota, New York, six members of the renowned 1976 U.S. Olympic boxing team that won five gold medals (and seven overall) in Montreal convened for a 40-year reunion. It was a time for pleasant reminiscences of what was but also an occasion to mourn a beloved teammate, gold medalist Howard Davis Jr., who was 59 when he succumbed to Stage IV lung cancer on Dec. 30. The IBHOF also paid reverent homage to the June 3 passing of Muhammad Ali, who was 74 when the gradual erosion of his physical self due to Parkinson’s syndrome finally extracted the last vestige of his onetime vitality.

Nothing and no one endures forever. When Casino was too ill to shoot fights for Showtime, Esther Lin substituted for him and began to create her own legacy. Now that Obermayer, known as “KOJO” by his many friends on the boxing beat, is gone, his longtime wingman, Jeff Jowett, will be on press row and serving as a reminder of the many good times he and Obermayer had on the fight beat.

Tears of joy and tears of sorrow flow just as freely, depending on time and circumstance. Welcome back, Tom, and go with God, Jack.

Bernard Fernandez, a five-term president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, received the Nat Fleischer Award from the BWAA in April 1999 for lifetime achievement and was inducted into the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005, as well as the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013. The New Orleans-born sports writer has worked in the industry since 1969 and pens a weekly column on the Sweet Science for Sherdog.com.