Double Knockout Night

On Saturday night, Garrett, Bonnie and I went to watch a boxing match!

That's right, we're all tough and down like that.

Jessica was supposed to go with us, but unfortunately she lost her wallet and spent the evening cancelling her credit cards and annoying stuff like that.

The match was downtown at the Conference center, and there were actually 6 matches, the finale being 'The Re-match' between James "BIG MAC" Cermak and Carl Gathright, current holder of some title (I didn't catch what it was) for which he was wearing a big belt - yes, just like on TV Wrestling. The funny thing to me, is that grown men do not seem to feel silly wearing these belt things.

Anyway, the first bout we watched was the featherweight division between Chicago and Vancouver boxers. They both weighed 124 or 125 pounds, but I swear they were only about 4'11". Their four rounds were a good introduction to watching boxing for me, because there wasn't a lot of big, really hard hits (because they're just little guys) and no one seemed to get really hurt. You could tell who was winning the match and who was getting more tired, but it was definately entertaining. In the end, Vancouver won.

I didn't really like the next match too much. It was between another American guy (I forget where) and an Edmonton guy, who called himself 'The Pride from the North Side' and represented the Avenue of Champions. I found their names pretty funny, especially since the Avenue of Champions is actually the worst street in Edmonton - it's where there are a lot of drug and gang problems, and where you can find all the prostitues. American guy weighed 7 pounds more than Edmonton guy, however Edmonton guy was much taller. In any case, the weight advantage didn't count for much because Edmonton was a way better boxer and knocked the other guy out in 1min and 24 seconds. I didn't like it at all because the American guy couldn't even really defend himself. He travelled all the way to Edmonton and then didn't even really get to fight. I didn't like watching it. As well, the Edmonton fighter was a jerk. While American guy was still laying on the ground after being hit down (he was down there awhile, so I don't think he was doing too well), Edmonton was prancing in the other corner, air boxing and showing off. Then, when the ref held his arm up to announce his win, he did this silly bull-pawing-the-ground thing with his feet. I thought it was pretty silly and that he shouldn't be so cocky after beating someone who was not his equal. Oh well.

The next few bouts were better matched and lasted for all of their 4 or 6 rounds. The heavyweight fight was probably the most fun because they had some really big hits. We thought for sure this match wouldn't last for all 6 rounds, because the hits were so big and hard, but these guys were tougher than we gave them credit for. The heavyweight fights were more exciting than the lightweight ones, that's for sure. These guys were HUGE! 225 pounds and 6 feet tall, minimum. Slower pace but big hits. Another Edmontonian fought against a guy from Cincinnati in this bout, however Cincinnati won (he deserved to, he was a better boxer).

The Re-Match was a good fight too. It went for 8 rounds and was exciting the whole time. These guys were in the cruiser class. I'm guessing this is just below the heavyweight class, because they weighed around 200 pounds. Big guys as well. They had fought 8 months ago for the title that was now being rechallenged. Edmonton's James "BIG MAC" took on the current champion Carl in front of a very very rowdy crowd. It seemed to me that James wasn't going to be able to win the match, because he seemed to be more tired and get in less hits than Carl did. However, in the end the judges scored him as the winner by a close call. The crowd was pretty excited about it.

The other funny part about the fight was the ring girls. Just like you might expect, there were three, er, ladies...dressed in bikinis that climbed in the ring between each round and walked the edge holding up the sign that said 'Round 3' etc. Lots of whistling for these ladies, as you might expect.

Just like in the movies, though, you could see the spit and sweat go flying off the boxers when their opponent got a good hit on them. It was sort of gross, but we were sitting far enough away that we had no fear of being sprayed. I can only guess that the people sitting closer may have got showered a few times, and the judges (who sit right beside the ring) must get hit all the time! Gross.

It was an interesting night and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Normally, I don't like to see people hitting each other - I don't really like battle or war movies. However, it wasn't so bad to watch boxing. It wasn't like the fighters were trying to hurt each other specifically; it was more that the other was simply a moving target that they had to hit. The boxers were scored based on how many punches they connect on the other person. So, except for the knock-out fight, the other ones weren't brutal or cruel. I would even consider going again sometime.