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Hazlitt’s “The Fight” reminded me of Norman Mailer, himself a great pugilist, and author of a book of the same name. Here he is (in King of the Hill) on his favourite activity:

There was only one way in which boxing was still like a street fight, and that was in the need to be confident you would win. A man walking out of a bar to fight with another man is seeking to compose his head into the confidence that he will certainly triumph – it is the most mysterious faculty of the ego. For the confidence is a sedative against the pain of punches and yet it is the sanction to punch your own best.

The logic of the spirit would suggest that you win only if you deserve to win; the logic of the ego lies down the axiom that if you don’t think you will win, you don’t deserve to. And in fact, usually don’t; it is as if not believing you will win opens you to the guilt that perhaps you have not the right, you are too guilty.

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