“Noble exits from the noble art are just not the way of fighting men, particularly the men who have ruled boxing’s exalted dominion.” Brian Doogan Ring Magazine

How true!

While great ones quit when their call came, others refused to relinquish their hold on a science they call sweet. Some did it reluctantly while a few persisted in clinging to the last strands of the roped square.

There is now an ongoing refusal by Luisito Espinosa to recognize the reality of aging, a move that daggle the sport and it’s practitioners as well as its followers who have come to support it.

Once the country’s constant source of pride, Louie is resisting pressure to hand in the reins despite the need for it.

One of seven dual world champions (bantamweight and featherweight crowns) Luisito is now feeling the tiredness of a lifetime spent bustin’ beak and noggins.

He remain upbeat he still can find one who can book him a fight. But I suppose there would’nt be offers to choose from even for an adios fight.

Fact is, he may no longer be able to come back owing to a string of heart-rending losses administered by upstarts out to carve a name at his expense.

Once, the hall of fame candidate who owns an obsessive ability to bounce back from setbacks did offer to hang it in.

But the Tondo-born ringmaster had to forego such plan as he stroved to raise the wherewithal for his kids; training yuppies and stocking stores to make ends meet. .

Frankly, he is driven to extremes since the money owed him by his absconding promoters is not forthcoming.

In a rare admission after his recent stoppage, Luisito, admitted, he’ll call it a day once his hard-earned prize money “is stashed in my children’s bank.”

I do indeed feel for him. I’ve not been unflagging in lending my assistance.

But the case we filed to collect his purse has been in legal limbo for about a decade already while the hearing judge takes her time deliberating whether to inhibit or to rule.

Just rule Judge.

To archive it would not just be cruel.

It would deprive Luisito his only way out of the fistic jungle he’s mired in.