Adrift In A Sea Of Choices

"Archie Moore and Chalky Wright won titles with no legs," adds Futch, who is training Arguello again. "You can compensate with experience and tactics. I'll monitor it more closely—I'll stop a fight quick if I have to."

Arguello: "After I retired, deep down I think I wanted disaster. I didn't gain control of my life until I lost everything. I've learned my lesson.

"I won't let what happened to other boxers coming back happen to me. I know how to work hard. I've shown too much class." He tenses all 10 fingers and strikes his chest, the thump resounding as from a barrelful of wine. "I'm not like Ali," he says. "I'm different."

One blue-skied day, two months before his first comeback fight and a few hours after his morning run, feeling flooded Arguello. His eyes shone with a happiness he seemed almost afraid to share; his lips tried but could not bear to conceal it.

"Something is happening to me," he said.

What is it?

"No one can understand but me."

Try to explain.

"I cannot. It's...it's a feeling."

Say it in Spanish, said his wife. Maybe she could find a way to say it in English.