(JUN 26) I never really understood the term "Win/Win", particularly when it was applied to sports. In sports, there is only one winner, because, in sports, you keep score. This is probably truest in the sport of boxing, where, in many cases, even a scorecard is not needed to clearly understand who won and who lost. Just a look at the fighters, one unmarked, one bloodied, one standing, one not, often provides a clear cut answer as to the winner. "Win/Win" is seldom the case in boxing.

However, last weekend in a boxing ring in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada this seemingly inappropriate, contradictory phrase took on a particular cogence. Jelena Mrdjenovich, a skilled fighter out of Canada, was seeking to avenge her only loss in a twelve bout career when she faced off with Layla McCarter in the eight round feature of Arnie Rosenthal's "A Ring of Their Own" program. McCarter had beaten Mrdjenovich in February and the return bout was a "natural" which Rosenthal had grabbed to headline the third edition of his series. He came away with a "Win/Win."

Halfway through the bout, as expected, the fight, according to those at ringside, was very close. Several observers had Mrdjenovich ahead by a slight margin, but McCarter, one of the more crafty ring veterans of the sport, has shown, in the past, that she is capable of making in-fight adjustments and, thus, at the midway point, the fight was essentially "up for grabs."

In the fifth round, it was clear to everyone watching that McCarter's left arm was badly injured. It was later diagnosed as a break of the radial bone, a bone in the forearm that controls the movement of the elbow and wrist. It became apparent that the adjustments McCarter would now have to make in this bout would have as much to do with the injury as with her opponent. The other option open to McCarter was to stop fighting. Not surprisingly, she made adjustments. McCarter fought the last four rounds with her left arm essentially useless. Mrdjenovich, sensing the advantage, continually peppered McCarter's injured arm with jabs, which is not only completely legal, but is totally expected in the ring. It's akin to aiming punches at a cut. It is why boxing is, at once, the most fascinating and cruelest of sports.

McCarter attempted to counter this tactic by turning from an orthodox to a southpaw stance thus providing more protection for her injured left arm. In the movies, McCarter would have staged a remarkable comeback and pulled the fight out in a dramatic, last second fashion. This wasn't the movies, it was simply two very good fighters doing what very good fighters do, using all their ring skills to try win a boxing match. Mrdjenovich controlled the second half of the bout and came away with a unanimous decision; the final scoring: 79-73, 78-75 and 79-74.

Would the fight have turned out differently had McCarter not sustained the injury? Who knows. Layla McCarter won the February bout handily and Jelena Mrdjenovich, like all good fighters, learned from that experience and fought much better and much smarter the second time around. Mrdjenovich deserves credit for not only adjusting her ring tactics, but also for quickly returning to the ring with the fighter who handed her the only defeat of her career. It's unfortunate that the injury marred a great match-up.

Of course, the injury is an issue, but Layla McCarter is not the type of person or fighter who spends much time bemoaning issues. She is the type of fighter to whom what happens inside the ropes is the only issue. She came out for every round and didn't make excuses after the bout, saying only that the reason she continued to answer the bell is that a stoppage of the fight would have "devastated me."

Thus, a terrific boxing match was tainted by an injury. For Mrdjenovich it cast a cloud on what would have been the biggest win of her career. For McCarter, the injury prevented her from performing at a peak level for half the fight. For the boxing fans in Edmonton it deprived them of eight rounds of boxing as good as the sport of Women's boxing has to offer.

In the same month that other, equally unlucky boxing fans saw a fighter once deemed the "baddest man on the planet" sit on his stool in a fight in Washington, DC, in another country to the North, and in another universe as far as the quality of courage is concerned, a female boxer continued fighting for four rounds with an injury that would have incapacitated most fighters in the sport. Layla McCarter finished behind on the scoreboard, but her name doesn't belong in the same sentence with the word "loser." There were no losers in Edmonton last weekend; a very good fighter won the decision and an equally good fighter defined what is the essence of the sport of boxing: to keep coming out of your corner, until your body gives in and, in rare instances, going beyond that point. Layla McCarter went well beyond that point in Edmonton. "Playing with pain" took on a special meaning on this night.

So "Win/Win", at least for one night, had a very meaningful and appropriate application to the sport of boxing. In fact, make it "Win/Win/Win': Jelena Mrdjenovich, Layla Mcarter and the sport of Women's boxing were all winners. And when Layla McCarter recovers from her surgery, another big win is in store for boxing fans, everywhere: McCarter/Mrdjenovich III. It's worth waiting for.

Bernie McCoy