Colossians 2:15 — and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

So the big fight has finally taken place. The cool experience of Floyd Mayweather was too much for the passion of Manny Pacquiao (I believe that’s “Pack–ee– ow”). It seems it wasn’t much of a fight. Myra and I didn’t watch. We don’t have any interest in boxing now. We did once though, and all the hoo-hah around this fight reminded me of the only fight we ever saw together …
It was a cold February night in the East End of London. Twelve thousand five hundred people were crammed into a dock shed converted into an arena. It was a classic fight night. Gangsters and aristocracy rubbed shoulders. Disreputable and boringly respectable enthusiasts eagerly awaited the clash between American Gerald Mclellan and local boy Nigel Benn. 

It was a classic fight. Benn was downed in the first round by one of the hardest punchers Boxing has ever seen. Mclellan knocked him down again in the eighth round, but Benn hung on, and somehow knocked Mclellan out in the last round. The “Dark Destroyer” had triumphed. But it was a victory soon turned to tragedy. Mclellan had suffered a massive blood clot to the brain. Three-and-a-half-hour surgery saved his life. He was in a coma for two months and was left blind, hearing impaired, brain damaged and unable to walk.

Could any good come from such a tragedy. Oh yes, it could. God will find a way. Nigel Benn is a born-again Christian. Here’s what he says of his life in Australia:

All my life I’ve had people serve me. Now it’s nice to cut people’s gardens, to do the lawn, make a cup of tea, paint their house [as part of his religious devotion]. That’s a blessing and I enjoy it. I had a life of sex, drugs …  suicide attempt. I was a liar, a cheat, a thief, but to be in a place where I was able to confess 16 years’ worth of affairs to my wife – … When I said the prayer of salvation and accepted Jesus as my lord and savior all my addictions from drink, from sex and smoking weed it all went like that. I was set free from everything.
In the end there is no victory for any “Dark Destroyer”. Satan thought he had a victory. But Jesus got up off the ground to deal the knock-out blow. It was the greatest grandest victory of all. The Battle is won …