A testimony of the body and soul
These photos are a tribute to all those with the courage to enter the ring and put their health and well-being on the line, enduring all the pain outside and inside the ring for a noble cause – discovering who they are, to provide for their families or for the pure love of the game.
Not so much a game of physical strength but rather more of a game of mental strength, where the real strength manifests itself when the body gives away and victory is only possible through power of will alone.
I see two fighters battling it out and striving for the supreme accomplishment of a warrior, that of valor.
There, inside the ring, in the mist of danger, fighters seek and may find that part of themselves, concealed beneath all the human faults and follies, which shines forth brilliant and virtuous.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt The man In The Arena
