Fighters fight for all kinds of reasons: to honor their neighborhoods and to escape them, to provide for themselves and their families, to be better than their environment might otherwise allow them to be. Siler came here to do all that and, as he put it again and again, "bring home the gold."

He'll have to strive for something different now. What a bout that will be.

Uzbekistan's Tulashboy Doniyorov, right, celebrates his victory over American Ron Siler, from Cincinnati. (AP photo)

His father, Ron Siler Sr., sat in the stands at Peristeri Hall before his son's fight, working a beaded bracelet in his left hand. His right hand steadied on his thigh, "to keep my leg from jumping," he said.

Senior raised Junior alone, almost from Day One. There is much to be said about that, all of it good. Siler Sr. took seriously his job as a father. He embraced the notion that being a parent is the toughest job you'll ever love. It made all the difference. You might even say it saved two lives: His and his son's.

Senior washed dishes. He cooked short-order. He made a life for the two of them. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But Senior never gave up on Junior, and Junior never gave up on himself. Look at what the union has produced.

"They say you don't know what a mother goes through until you walk in her shoes," Senior said. "I've had the shoes on frontward and backward."

Siler's mother, Sharolynn Harper, is here for the Games. Published accounts have said she has seen her son five times since he was a baby. Harper declined interview requests from the Enquirer.

Senior is here thanks to the generosity of others. He says he is staying in a $250-a-night hotel found for him by USA Boxing. When you ask him how he's paying for it, he says, "The man upstairs." When you ask him what he does at home in Cincinnati, Siler Sr. says, "Whatever I can."

He says he will not depend on his son for financial assistance. "It ain't never been about money between us," Senior said. "Ever since we watched the Olympics on TV together, he'd say, 'Daddy, I'm going to win so I can get you a house.' I said no, get me a van, so I can get to where you are. I don't need a hotel. I'll stay in my van."

Regardless, Junior is facing a future with little visible means of support. His plan is to "go home, chill with my kids until the new year, (then) turn pro." Which would be a solid plan for a gold medalist, maybe.

Even if Junior had advanced to the gold medal fight, the chances he'd make a lot of money fighting wouldn't have been good. What is the market for a pro fighter now? Specifically, what is the market for a 112-pound fighter who just lost in a preliminary Olympic round?

No American promoters or their representatives came to Athens, the way they have at every other Olympics. No one was here to woo the fighters' families, hoping to influence their sons to sign a pro contract. After Cincinnati lightweight Ricardo Williams won a silver medal in Sydney, he signed for more than $1 million. Last week, he was indicted on cocaine trafficking charges.

So you worry for Ron Siler Jr., who conducted himself as a gentleman here and deserved the chance he got. You lament some of the choices he has made. You hope his father remains supportive.

Somebody asked Siler who he thought he'd be at age 35, 11 years from now. "Hopefully, I'll be a retired champion sitting back with my kids," he said. "A person in the neighborhood kids look up to. Giving back to the community."

You hope that for him. You know how long those odds will be. Then again, look where he came from. When he was tiny, he slept in a dresser drawer because his father couldn't afford a crib.

Fighting is a metaphor for who Ron Siler Jr. has been. Boxing is the road to who he wants to be. Let's hope the fighting is over. And the boxing is here to stay.

---

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com