In the last few rounds, those watching felt a growing and almost unreasonable pathos. It was an emotional force considerably larger than the spectaclea heavyweight champion losing his titlemight be expected to generate. The moment carried an accumulation of memories and meanings that are involved in the drama of great athletes aging and failing.
Even when performed amid the Naugahyde and flash of Las Vegas, sport can serve a kind of liturgical function. It becomes a parable: those few athletes who are gifted with a certain magic become proof of the splendors that...
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