Man of mercy

He was a man who knew how to knock out another man. Against amateurs, there was just no match for him. 4 years of tough man competitions, he walked away with the title everytime.   I worked with him for over 10 years and had many talks about boxing. He told me about how he got to spar Tyson when he was getting ready for the Olympics.   He never bragged much about his wins, but he told me that if he wanted to hurt someone he could. But he rather win.   Years later i ran into him at the bowling alley. We caught up on old times, but i saw one of those punching machines in the corner and i told him "I'm not letting you leave without seeing what you got". He smiled and said "sure, let's do it". I took a meagher swing and scoring average i said" your turn Alvin". Alvin squares up and  threw only a stiff jab that still results in shutting off the machine.   One of the strongest men in the world took 8 running swings at a similar machine accomplished what Alvin did with one stiff jab   I realized then that he really could have hurt someone in the ring but showed mercy and simply would just try to win.    When i found out he died a month ago, this is how i wanted to remember him. As a man could have been a brute and a menace in life, but instead decided to show mercy to his competitors and kindness to all.