I’m a boxing fan! No let me rephrase that, I am a boxing fan at convenient times and in my world that amounts to about one fight a month. I would be telling tales out of school if I said that I watched regularly and can definitively say who the heavyweight champ of the world is.
Why isn’t it Mike Tyson? This guy is bad news, I know, but I like watching him in the ring. He is the kind of fighter who not only entertains, but he is so damn scary that something in you cannot help but reflect on the reality of the sport, which is that boxing is more than a contact sport. It is about technique yes, but I will argue that it also involves major “roughing up”.
That infamous “roughing up” term applies to boxing in my book, but in this particular case, I will make an exception and say that a boxing bout minus some roughing up is not much of a match. I am not sure whether this is morbid, but I watched that controversial Holyfield/Tyson fight and thought, “Yeah, this is a fight!” I remember my aunt sitting a short distance away and cringing in disgust, my cousins in silence and there I was all pumped up.
They struggled to comprehend how I found excitement in the sordid episode, but I couldn’t explain it then and maybe not even now. What I know is that a fight needs some sort of shock factor, which is why kick boxing and other martial arts stuff have also been on my list of entertaining sports. “So he bit him, big deal!” I declared that night when Tyson decided to go Hannibal on us and since then I have watched many of those HBOs fights in my room, alone. I don’t need anyone telling me stuff about how I am sick; sick because I like ‘shock factor’, go figure.
Since we are on the subject I will launch right into the boxing staged here a week ago at the Princess Hotel. What a night! What memorable bouts! I had not been to a local boxing since like forever, but I decided to stop watching the action on television and see it live. I stepped out with a dear friend of mine and realized from the minute we got to the hotel that boxing is huge here. Who knew? People were pouring out from every corner of that hotel, which meant we ended up in a line so long I felt the main event was going to come and pass while we were out there.
But we managed to get in time for a few amateur fights then things got really interesting. I had heard of the ‘Coolie Bully’, but damn this guy is good! I sat and watched as he dominated another fighter and kept thinking he could go far in the sport if he keeps the mean streak up. I loved his aggression and the way he attacked his opponents with an unexplained rage when he was in the zone. I enjoyed that fight with the ‘Coolie Bully’.
The night progressed and I witnessed a few other fights including the hyped match between the ‘Stealth Bomber’ and Veronica Blackman. What a let-down! They played around in that ring for the ten rounds that it lasted and the Stealth Bomber walked away with the victory; I would have called a draw. The fight of the night came just after when Shondell Alfred took on the overseas fighter who goes by the name, ‘Sexy Panther’. She is sexy alright, but too sexy for the ring in my opinion. She came out modelling and spent a few minutes bouncing around the ring like she was serious about the rematch yet when the bell rang she never got into the match. Shondell dominated her from the first round and then it came in the fourth round. Out of nowhere this amazing ‘right hook’ and Panther was on the canvas; I knew it was over by then and I absolutely loved it. The main bout featuring the local boy Dalton did not live up to expectations, but honestly I was not expecting much.
I am up for another boxing match, but not at the Sports Hall. Something about that place gives me the creeps.
The only thing that spoiled my mood, temporarily, last week at the Princess Hotel was the blatant disrespect which some people showed when the National Anthem was being sung by the talented Lisa Punch. I saw people sitting and felt like throwing a few punches of my own. How dare Guyanese disrespect our Anthem like that! I saw one particular individual who I know and you probably do too, but some people you have to simply forget for peace’s sake. Right? Wrong! I was disgusted, and even Tyson doesn’t disgust me. (thescene@stabroeknews.com)
