Princess the Elder is the Women’s National Golden Gloves middle weight champion. It has been a long, hard road.

Boxing is the purest of sports. There is only you, your opponent, and a referee to keep things square. What makes it pure is that the fourth occupant of the ring is truth. It will come out. There is no place, nor person to hide behind. How hard you have worked, your courage, character, and determination are all laid out for everyone to see and judge.

Losing, in a lot of ways, is easier. It hurts more, but being gracious and magnanimous to your opponent is easier because you are already humble, so you have a head start on being “a good loser”, if there is such a thing. I have yet to hear a competitor in any endeavor say, “I don’t mind losing”. If there is one, they shouldn’t be competing.

Weeks ago, the Princess lost her first fight, and took it hard. After thanking her opponent and accepting her congratulations, she left the venue, went to the car and cried. When we talked, there was a new determination in her eyes. She wasn’t going to quit, and I could tell from her glowering stare that the next opponent was in for a brutal confrontation, and that someday, she would be a champion.

She learned valuable lessons from her loss. Her workouts increased in intensity, and her sparring was jarring. At her next fight, her opponent got into the ring, looked across at the Princess, turned, climbed through the ropes and walked away. Not a punch was thrown. Victory was hers, but it wasn’t sweet.

This past week, against the advice of a coach, and the nay-saying of many, we went to the Women’s National Golden Gloves in Fort Lauderdale. It was risky. She had had only two previous fights, and she was going up against the best in the nation. I was anxious about it, but knew it would be valuable experience.

She got a bye to the championship round. The anxiety rose as we watched her eventual opponent. I knew her head was right when she looked over at me and said, “She isn’t going to take the belt. It is mine”, and I knew it was true.

The championship fight was brutal, and at the end, I could not pick a winner. The two had given and taken for three hard rounds. It seemed to take forever for the judges to make a decision, and when it came, it was split 4:1. They had not agreed on the winner, but the announcer said, “In the red corner”, and the ref raised the Princess’ hand. She had won. Now came the hard part, being a gracious winner.

You want to cheer, jump up and down, and shout to the heavens for your victory. That is the natural tendency, but is it the right one? I waited to see how the victorious Princess handled it.

With a beaming smile, she turned and embraced her opponent. I could tell they were conversing. I would later find out that they exchanged congratulations and, “I thought you had its”, and promised to keep in touch. Afterward, the Princess told me that she liked her. That is a hard thing to do to a person that only moments before, you had to dislike enough to beat into submission.

They keep in touch via Face Book and promise to meet each other down the road, and they will. Will the outcome be the same? They will have to fight it out, but the real battle has been won. They both showed character, and that is winning, losing, and being a champion.

David Wilson Atwood is a local writer whose human-interest columns offer a unique perspective. He may be contacted, at www.starchasers.us or david@starchasers.us.