Youngstown was a pugnacious steel city of 167,000 when Loew was born, with boxing clubs anchored in many neighborhoods. [...] A half-century later, Youngstown i

Youngstown was a pugnacious steel city of 167,000 when Loew was born, with boxing clubs anchored in many neighborhoods. [...] A half-century later, Youngstown is down to a population of 65,000, a hemorrhaging of 100,000 people caused by steel-plant closings, a failure to diversify and the absence, so far, of a sustainable second act. This is a fairly common story in the fighting world. The strength it takes to literally get punched in the face and keep moving forward is built as much by life circumstance as training. I live in Warren, OH, about 10 minutes from Taylor's home. I moved back here after I graduated in college in 2008. While building my career as a developer, I spent time working in a call center and breaking down cardboard on an assembly line at a local automotive plant. In those places, the lack of hope is thick in the air. Attitudes are negative, humor is sarcastic and caustic, and dreams are sparse. Just about every business around here has it. Poor service is expected and understandable, frustration is inevitable, and poverty is cyclical. It's a common story in the rust belt. Hopes and dreams are one of Warren's biggest exports - college graduates who never return, pro athletes who don't look back, and successful entrepreneurs who struggle to find markets and skilled labor in the city limits to re-invest their fortunes. Instead they make donations. Their new businesses are built elsewhere. You'll count as many missions and soup kitchens downtown as you will shops and restaurants. Hamzah Aljahmi and Anthony Taylor are both tragic figures. Aljahmi was killed pursuing his dream, while Taylor's dreams, undeterred by his physical deficits and crushing poverty, are now forever tainted. Like so many other would-be dreamers in Warren, he'll have to fight off the encroaching bitterness or risk being consumed by it. If that happens, his best scenario is a few acidy laughs on an assembly line. If he overcomes this tragedy, his best case scenario is escape to a fighting life in Las Vegas. I'll be rooting for him. I hope to watch him on pay-per-view someday. In the meantime, I'll be here, programming remotely, spending my spare cycles daydreaming about solutions to the despair of our common hometown.