So Lucky, big night today huh? Finally the day you dreamt about each single night for the past five years, is here. The Championship night!!! Boxing enthusiasts, fans, former champions, moviestars, politicians, corporate big-wigs are all keenly awaiting you beside the ring to be witness to what is being called the ‘Match of the decade’. Back home, everyone from Chandigarh to Calcutta, from Madurai to Mumbai, Assam to Ahmedabad, from Dharavi to Delhi has their eyes on you- full of expectation and hope. Tonight is more than just another match where two boxers fight it out for fame or money. Success tonight is not just about the short-lived joy of your fans. Most of the billion people who want you to win tonight, are people who live in despair and misery. Their lives are not a bit worth living, problems haunting them each day, each meal like blessing from the heavens, the rich and powerful making blank promises and shying away each time. Its hell for them Lucky! Yet they forget all their miseries to cheer for you. They completely relate with your rise from the streets of Bhiwani to Madison Square garden tonight. Their lives are linked to yours now- through a delicate thread-a thread of hope. You are not fighting for yourself tonight, you are fighting for at least a billion people tonight.Your success, would make them stronger from the inside and give them the strength to fight, fight for a living, fight for honour. Your failure would mean the devastation of their hopes and killing of the remote possibility all these people have of a dream of leading a life of respect - you must not allow that to happen- the thread of hope must not be allowed to break. And it is not just India, but trust me, every underdog in the world, whoever dreams of achieving something in life has their hopes pinned on you tonight. Your success will prove that life is not about what the world creates around you, but its about breaking the shackles of dogma created by the world.
I know it is a tough ask to fight with such a huge burden on your shoulders, especially when you are fighting the best boxer in the world for the championship. But, remember- these hopes and expectations are not a burden, but your strength. Uppercut, left jab, right jab, punch on the ribs- I won't tell you what to do tonight. All I will tell you as your coach is that Karim must see in your eyes the passion and aggression of a Tiger. He must see that he is not fighting another boxer, but a fighter representing the dreams and aspirations of millions around the world. Tonight, your eyes have to spit fire, your limbs have to move with agility of a Python, your punches have to pack the power of a violent elephant, your body language that of a ferocious Cobra. You have to tell him that you need this victory more than anyone.
It is you who fought corrupt bureaucrats. It is you who trained day in and day out night despite no support- even your own body giving up after working all day in the burning sun to make a living. It is you who struggled and lead a lonely battle to be here tonight. What you have is not a dream- dreams are just that- dreams. You are the reality, a new reality the world will see tonight, a revolution, that is going to represent a new world. A world where courage is the biggest virtue and not weealth, where virtue of the human spirit defines a person, where every person has the right to lead a life of respect, where the glory of the world is linked to the dignity of the poorest person on the earth. You have to win tonight Lucky and I know you will, because this is the beginning of a new era and no one can stop it, not even God, and you will lead the world into this new era. Tonight is not about boxing Lucky, its about life. And you are full of life- I can see it in your eyes. Go for it!!!!
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