Meeting an Inglorious Champion

An old Cambodian legend tells about a man who killed a big lion with a single knee strike and saved his village.After that day, the bokator,the art to kill the lion, became the greatest weapon of Cambodian armies for centuries.
Nowadays, very few people in Cambodia remember about the legend. The Khmer Rouge age saturated the memories of the Kingdom with sadder stories. But Cambodian still remember about a man who changed his destiny only by the force of his knee strike. His name is Eh Pouthong, undisputed World Champion of Free Boxing for over 15 years, more than 250 fights, only 10 defeats, 90 KO inflicted, and a ten of movies starring his name.
I was excited and worried at the same time by the chance to meet such a celebrity from my travel reports in Cambodia. But when I entered the Military Academy where Pouthong trains his students, the ring was an old canvas lying on a dusty square, and my man was slovenly sitting in the middle, surrounded by teens and roosters, shouting old songs in the slack time, and everything was just messy.
I spent a week following Pouthong in his daily life, living with his family at his house, in the slums of Khan Dangkor, sleeping on his flat roof, under the pink mosquito net where he hosts the poorest of his students, and wondering every night how could this man live with such a pride the contrast between his reality and his status of World Champion. Meanwhile, Pouthong spent his time trainings his fellows, playing with his family, and singing karaoke in my honour.
But on my last morning at his house he said: “The free boxing nowadays is full of bad dogs, but it gives a chance to the poor teens to redeem themselves. Today I have an house and a wonderful family, and I can teach them to get the same”. He was looking to the city and waiting for the sun, and I came out from the pink net to take my shoot. Because I realised that everything this Inglorious Champion was sharing with me with such a pride, was the real prize of his career.