Jeremyt the BOXER

Jeremy Hyde: The Legend of a Champion

Prolouge:  Jeremy is 5’6 at a shaky 100 pounds. He has always dreamt of being a professional boxer; however his body and his cowardice have disallowed him from doing so. Jeremy is from Billings, Montana, and is the youngest in a family of 5. Throughout Jeremy’s entire life, he has been mentally and physically beaten down by his family due to his physical stature and his submissive personality.  His mother and father are raging alcoholics and are in and out of jail.  His older brother Jeremiah has always been the favorite child and has always been supported by the rest of the family. He was the star athlete at Billings High, and has always been a stud. His younger sister, Alison is a princess. Her each and every wish was granted as a kid simply because she asked for them to be. Jeremy on the other hand is afraid to ask for a new pair of shoes before his current ones literally fall apart. It has turned her into a rather atrocious adult. Jeremy had suffered abuse from his entire family in different ways. The only thing that kept Jeremy going through all of this was his dream and his idol, Pernell Whitaker, who in 1990 became the undisputed lightweight champion of the world. His dream was to one day claim this title, and he intended to get there.

When Jeremy was a kid, he always took crap from everybody because there was nothing that he could do about it. The constant beatings and emotional harassment that he suffers from his family has decimated his ability to stand up for himself. But Jeremy does have an unnatural amount of determination. Almost anything that Jeremy sets his mind to he can achieve.

One hot summer day, Jeremy was on his bicycle that he had built one day out of scraps that he found while digging around the junkyard by his school. Jeremy had been around enjoying the peaceful countryside and when he returned home his brother was furious. Like always he had refused to explain himself, and as Jeremy was parking his bike in the garage, Jeremiah, as if he appeared from thin air, struck Jeremy in a way that was all too familiar with him. He fell to the ground and let out a grunt of pain.  The next thing that Jeremy noticed was Jeremiah taking out his remaining rage on the bicycle that Jeremy oh so treasured.  Before Jeremy could rise his bike had been nearly destroyed. Full of an emotion that he had never felt before Jeremy, without thinking, took up the makeshift handlebars that he had fashioned out of a couple pieces of steel pipe and struck Jeremiah with such force that it knocked him to the ground. He stayed there for a few seconds, partially of awe, and partially out of pain. He then rose and returned the same brute force back to Jeremy in the form of a strike to the face. Despite the rather brutal nature of the beating Jeremy suffered later that day, he knew on the inside that he had won the fight, his family treated him differently from then on.

Later in Jeremy’s life, the determination paid off. Jeremy had made something of himself. Although alone because of his submissive nature, he had money, and the means to stop working and pick up a hobby. He then decided that it was the perfect time to pursue his dream. He started to take boxing classes for a start. It turned out that he had talent; he quickly advanced and began serious training. His trainer’s name was Phillip. Jeremy had only made it this fat because he was able to out maneuver his opponents and strike them before they could really lay a hand on him. Phillip explained to him however that he would have to learn to take a hit to make it in the big leagues. Therefore, one of the main exercises that Phillip put together for Jeremy was the “Punching Bag”. It consisted of Jeremy, without moving, taking a punch of Phillips choice directly to the face and then immediately after defending another random punch. Jeremy had trouble with this, but it didn't seem to affect his winning capabilities. In fact, after years of winning he made it all the way to the lightweight championship of the world without successfully completing this exercise.  The last training session that he had before his big fight that would ultimately allow him to accomplish his lifelong goal; he remembered something whenever it came time for the “Punching Bag”. He remembered the way that he felt whenever he had struck his brother for the first time, he remembered what it felt like to stand up for himself and fight back after getting knocked down. As he was preparing for the hit, he closed his eyes. When they opened a thunderous right hook jolted him in the face, he instantly re-opened his eyes and he batted away the following left jab and returned with a left uppercut that would bring Phillip to ground. He was ready.

The day of the fight, Jeremy had never felt more confident about anything in his life. He knew exactly what he needed to do in order to defeat the reigning lightweight champion of the world and he knew how to do it.

As the final ding of the bell rang to start the fight Jeremy was excited. He stepped into his first punch and it was successful in making the Russian stagger backwards. Jeremy stepped in for another punch but received a quick series of jabs to the stomach that made him back off. Jeremy knew he had to end the fight fast or he would simply be outlasted. He waited for a perfect opportunity which came early in the second round. Vladimir stepped in with a powerful right hook that ended up in Jeremy’s face, but instantly, as if he had prepared for this specific situation, he blocked the next attempt by Vladimir and returned the most powerful uppercut that he had ever dished out. It hit Vladimir and was seemingly ineffective. Jeremy then began delivering a barrage of punches that he thought would assert his dominance in the fight. But in the midst of an almost blind attack on his opponent he received a shot to the jaw that would knock him out. He had lost the fight due to a KO. When he awoke the hospital room was empty, except for Phillip and a TV that was covering the fight, and he had heard a mention of his name shortly followed by the description of a sack of potatoes falling to the ground. When his coach noticed that he had awoke, he cut off the TV and asked Jeremy, “So how does it feel”? He said that he wasn’t in pain. Phillip then corrected him and said, “No how does the win feel”? Jeremy was confused, he was sure that he lost and he was correct. Phillip then told him that he had won, but what he had won was not what he had dreamt of. Jeremy found his courage; he found it in himself once again to fight back. This time however, it had a much more permanent effect, although his dream was never accomplished, he had won.