I’d just written an article with the word ‘in…ter…est…ing’ in it — I like to stretch that word out, sometimes — and I’d emailed it to the Daily Post on Saturday.
Then, on Sunday morning, the word came to me, that way, once again, as I was reading about a mixed martial arts (MMA) fight in Las Vegas.
I don’t follow MMA, but something about this fight was unexpected. And in…ter…est…ing!
Donald Trump was there, “among the star-studded crowd,” reported Kevin Iole, the Combat columnist for Yahoo Sports, but that wasn’t what was unexpected. Being seen where pugilism was underway, where fighters — tough guys beating up each other, hitting and kicking — that was just the former president promoting his brand image, I’d say.
What was unexpected, and in…ter…est…ing, was the tale of the two fighters, in Mr. Iole’s column.
The loser in the MMA battle was Conor McGregor, who “was once a clever, witty delight, has turned into an overbearing boor who doesn’t know where to draw the line,” Tole wrote.
“After threatening for weeks to send opponent Dustin Poirier out of the cage on a stretcher, it was McGregor who needed assistance to leave the cage Saturday and underwent surgery at a local hospital on his left leg.”
With the fight over and done, McGregor “shouted at Poirier as he sat on the canvas and made a gun signal to his head.”
And this brings me to what was unexpected and so very in…ter…est…ing.
A young man sitting “cageside at the event with his mother and father… has cancer that has returned, Iole noted in his column, “and Poirier has donated money to the family to help pay” the young man’s “medical bills, and provided moral support.”
And there was this, as well, in the article. “He’s a real fighter,” Poirier said, describing the young man. “Guys like that are who I want to lift up… That’s a real fighter.”
There was more, as well, about good things Poirier, along with an ex-MMA fighter and a famous boxer, have been doing for people in need, in Uganda.
Tough guys, sometimes, with good hearts. That is in…ter…est…ing, like a mentioned. And refreshing.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.