In August, over 1,500 competitors from all over the world descended upon Kansas City, Mo., for the 2005 Ringside World Championships, the world's largest amateur boxing tournament. Among the competitors was Eugene Tsui, 50 years young, a longtime chiropractic patient and four-time champion in gymnastics at the Senior Olympics, who undertook this challenge for the first time.
Eugene is what I would call a 21st century Renaissance man. Among other things, he is a licensed architect and contractor, city and regional planner, industrial designer, artist, inventor, musician, publisher, and chair of a nonprofit foundation in Emeryville, Calif. He holds four professional degrees in architecture and city and regional planning, and has written four publications on architecture. He was the youngest member of the organizing committee for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. In addition to all of this, he is an accomplished athlete, as his record in the Senior Olympics attests.
Eugene took up boxing one year prior to the 2005 championships, and decided to enter the event three months prior to the competition. His preparation for this first-time endeavor included a specific workout schedule with his trainer, Charles King, owner of King's Boxing Gym in Oakland, Calif., a special diet; and neck strengthening exercises at the Norman Marks Health Club. Dr. Marks is a well-known doctor of chiropractic in the San Francisco Bay area; now in his early 80s, Dr. Marks still works out three hours per day.
In addition, Eugene received various chiropractic treatments, as he has been a patient of mine for many years. A report of my treatment on Eugene appeared in a previous issue of this publication. (Editor's note: See "Homeopathy and Chiropractic Take Home the Gold and Silver in the Oct. 20, 2003 issue or at www.chiroweb.com/archives/21/22/13.html.)
Eugene attributes his success to training, a winning attitude, and the support of his family. Before the boxing championships began, I asked Eugene if he had any more secrets to his success that he wanted to share. He told me, "I must reach for the highest and strive to become the best. I wanted to make sure that I put everything I could into preparing myself. I also realized that there is one attitude that cannot be beaten, and that is the attitude that you have made a decision that you are ready to die in the ring - ready to win or die trying. This kind of attitude is very difficult to beat."
Eugene Tsui has achieved his goal: He not only competed in the world's largest amateur boxing competition; he also won the super middleweight boxing title (165 pounds) in the men's master's division (ages 48 to 58) at the Ringside Championships.
Congratulations, Eugene!