Most Empathetic Moment In Boxing

Most Empathetic Moment In Boxing history shows Puerto Rican boxer, Esteban de Jesús, the first fighter to put Panamian Roberto Duran on the
canvas, saw his life took a strange turn. The pair met thrice in the ring with De Jesus winning
the first fight and putting Duran down in both first two fights by his left hook making it one of
the famous boxing rivalries.

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After retirement, De Jesus started to see his drug habit grow worse and he started to make
headlines for all the wrong reasons. He was arrested for the possession of drugs during a raid in
San Juan. Things did not stop there as he was later involved in a road rage incident under the
influence of drugs that resulted in the death of an 18-year old guy after a high-speed chase on
an expressway. Convicted of a first-degree murder he went for a sentence to life in prison.

De Jesus tried to make things better by becoming a preacher at Rio Piedras State jail. He made
the daily prayer meetings part of his life in the prison. One day he was told his brother had died
of AIDS. De Jesus had himself tested by the prison administration as he had shared needles with
his brother to inject drugs in the past. The results came in and he was tested positive.

In a few years, his health declined to a very low. His sentence was altered on the condition that he had to be kept in an AIDS clinic under treatment. While giving an interview on television in
February 1989, he mentioned that the physicians gave him somewhere between one to four
years to live. After three months, he passed away.

A few weeks before he died, De Jesus received an unexpected visit from his former ring rival Roberto Duran. From hundreds of miles away, Duran came to Puerto Rico to meet De Jesus for the fourth and final time in a battered milk factory turned into a sickbay.

Back in late 80s, with thousands of deaths, AIDS epidemic was not only a panic but also a taboo subject. The victims of the disease faced discrimination as the general public was ignorant on the process by which the disease spread.

But that did not stop Hands of Stone to embrace De Jesus which was an act of courage and
sympathy. Duran later said: “When I see him there so thin, my tears run out because he used to
be a muscular guy. I start crying and I hug him, and I kiss him and I tell my daughter to kiss him.”

The act of kindness was taken and shared in a photo by the Associated Press. A photo that
showed the human vulnerability and associations between all of us. A photo that showed the
great sportsmanship. A photo that showed a rivalry turned into an empathetic moment.

#Boxing #Empathy #ActOfKindness

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