On February 8, 1992, I sat glued to my television set as a local Christian boxer and good friend of mine, Dave Tiberi, entered the ring to fight for the IBF Middleweight Championship of the World. He was the decided underdog up against the reigning champion, James Toney. In fact, the gambling world would not even take bets on the fight since it was generally felt Tiberi had no chance of winning.
 

Toney was described by Dan Dierdorf, the ABC ring announcer, as "a man who says he was born angry," whereas Tiberi was described as a "man of God."

I couldn't help wincing as Dave took a sharp and brutal right hook square on his forehead in the first round. Dave later told me he had never been hit so hard in his life and thought he was a goner. That, in fact, is just what Toney had promised to do to Dave before the fight: "I want to kill him." It may have been pre-fight hype, but that was one incredible, powerful punch.

I started yelling, "Go down, Dave! Don’t be a hero. Go down! You are going to get killed!"

Dave, however did not go down. Instead, he kept fighting and, as the fight progressed, he actually seemed to gain strength. He will tell you that his strength came from the Lord Jesus.

Dave desired nothing in those crucial, pain-filled, exhausting moments other than to do his best. Of course, he wanted to win the title, but there was more at stake here for Dave. He wanted very much to bring glory to God in this bout. To be the middleweight champion of the world would give him name recognition and significant opportunities to honor God. Dave was certain, as he once told me, that "boxing is my angle to witness to people."

With each round, it became more and more obvious to everyone, including the ringside announcers, that Dave had not only survived that early shot to his head but – to everyone's surprise – was now actually outboxing his opponent and winning the fight. Though Sharon had no interest in watching two men "beat each other's brains out," she was drawn into the room by my shouting and excitement, and so she joined me "just for a moment" to watch the fight. By the eighth round, we were both thoroughly engrossed, both yelling and jumping and cheering for Dave. By the twelfth round, I was practically screaming at the television, "Stay away from Toney, Dave! You won! You won!"

When at last the final bell sounded, I was ecstatic. "You did it, Dave! You did it! You won!" So, too were the announcers, the news reporters, and most sports fans around the world.

Two of the three judges who scored the fight, however, somehow saw it all quite differently, and they awarded the match to James Toney. We and many others along with us were absolutely astounded by that decision. Our friend Dave was devastated.

Sharon and I had just witnessed one of the greatest injustices in boxing history. The awarding of that decision to James Toney eventually led Senator William Roth of Delaware to ask for a Senate investigation of the sport of boxing. This unjust decision confronted Dave head-on with a tremendous test of his faith. At that moment, Dave did not have "genesis 5:20 vision," the ability to appreciate and accept all that happens – even our greatest disappointments and personal crises – as part of God's good and perfect will for us. Blindsided by the judges' decision, Dave was not prepared for what this severe and painful disappointment would bring him.

After the fight, a frustrated and confused Dave could only tell interviewers that he had been "deprived." The ringside announcer, less restrained, called it "a disgusting decision."

God, however, was able to take that act of injustice and use it for good in Dave's life. Defeat forced Dave to carefully consider how he might be able to glorify God even in the midst of his disappointment. As Dave later told me, "each time God helped me to obey Him by responding honestly but without malice to my circumstances, I experienced a little bit more of His peace. I began to realize that He had intentionally arranged this entire situation for His own eternal reasons."

Thus it was that the loss of that fight actually gave Dave greater name recognition and opened up more ministry opportunities than a win could possibly have done. The godly influence of this man is now an ever-widening circle to a growing television audience and to inner-city young people. He deliberately located the Dave Tiberi Youth Center in the middle of the biggest drug district of Wilmington, Delaware, where no other youth ministries existed.

Dave's godly response to his unfair treatment has earned him the right to share the hope of Christ with teens who have been similarly betrayed by people and by systems that were supposed to uphold justice and protect them. God is transforming this earthly loss into eternal victories. He has used this experience not only to deepen Dave's peace in his own journey but also to deepen and strengthen the faith of many others.

Excerpted from Treasures of Faith, Living Boldly in View of God's Promises, pages 129-132. For more on living by faith in a broken world, read Treasures of Faith by Chuck and Sharon Betters, available through MARK INC Ministries (www.markinc.org) and fine books stores every where. Used by permission of P & R Publishing Company, copyright ©1999 by Chuck and Sharon Betters. All rights reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without permission of P & R Publishing Company.