'Remember Your Death' is kind of an odd way to start off a boxing career but that's what sixteen years of Catholic school can do to you. Overthinking was the enemy and sports was the therapy. That ended after four pitches trying out for the Fordham baseball team. "You have no talent at baseball, take up slow pitch softball" was the knife in the back I didn't see coming, delivered by a Brutus in a baseball uniform. There are certain anomalies in life that can't be solved by softball. Adrenaline was the antidote to the nonstop naysayer in my head that team sports could no longer deliver.​One Saturday morning in July 1981 I walked into a boxing gym on 30th Street called Gleason's. It was a place I had never been before and had been there all my life. I was always a fighter. Learning is remembering. Memento Mori. Then live your life backwards. ​ ​ ​​