| The
crowd drifts into the gym in pairs and treys. It’s a good-sized group considering
this Saturday afternoon’s event consists of two sparring matches. The entire affair
could be over in as little as twenty minutes after the scheduled two o’clock start.
No winners or losers, just practice before an audience. Most of the spectators seem to
know each other and quiet introductions among those who don’t precede the question,
"who are you here to see" not "who do you think is going to win?" A
favorite isn’t evident from the conversations. But this kind of event doesn’t
really cause passionate partisanship. Three of the four contestants go to the same to
college, so most of the spectators know more than one boxer, if not by name at least by
sight. As a result, they all seem to have at least from the anonymous familiarity that
comes from a couple of years of shared classes, parties, and the ephemeral social network
of college life. Besides, the onlookers aren’t really die hard fight fans, they are
more curious acquaintances of the contestants. Yet, some of the visitors know the club
well, having boxed at this place before being drawn away by another seducer. Like
penitents seeking absolution and readmission to the faith, they have returned with the
resolve to get back into the routine. Others boast of their former prowess, but alibi
their current inaction and lack of commitment. |
One
of the traditions of sparring exhibitions is that you can never be sure how many bouts
will go on until the start of the event. Originally, at least four sparring matches had
been set up. The tyranny of random events cut that number down to two. Boxers get ill,
other more pressing commitments emerge, and replacements are not easily qualified. This
coach takes care of his boxers. No one is going to enter the ring just for the sake of
having a full exhibition card. You don’t compete in this event if you aren’t
ready and, by his definition, you can’t ready if you have not been training regularly
in the time leading up to the event. The coach scratched one boxer who didn’t train
the week before the bout in favor of one that did. Also confirmed this day is a second tradition that the events never start on time
no matter how well planned they happen to be. Today’s delay is short, but just long
enough to be respectful to the tradition. The spectators draw close to the ring.
|
 |
"Fighting
out of the blue corner…," the announcer calls, glancing at the scrawls on paper
that are the vital statistics for the contestants. It’s the amazing shorthand that
tallies a boxer’s existence, the persona, the long hours of training, the repetitive
repetitions of drills done over and over, of every punch thrown, missed, and landed, the
results of every decision rendered. This sparring exhibition calls for abbreviated
introductions. Name, weight, nom de guerre. Not that it really matters. The contestants
have not been at this long enough to build much of a won-loss record. More importantly,
what’s the point of announcing a record for a contest that by definition will not
have a winner or loser or count toward the record? The kid smoothly delivers the truncated essentials, a good performance
considering he volunteered to be the ring announcer only a few minutes before the boxers
climbed between the ropes to enter the ring for the first match. His voice carries the
immediately recognizable nasally intonation of a New York accent—the kind of sound
that can assault the central nervous system like a dull scraper peeling paint off a
clapboard house. While the rich regional accents in this country have disappeared or toned
down, New Yorker’s speech becomes an audible cultural identification in a world where
more and more everyone speaks with the unaccented speech of Californians.
A corner man attends each boxer. His announcing
duties completed, the kid joins his friend in the corner as the number two second. They
have trained together under the same coach and can offer basic advice and see to his needs
between rounds. |
| Today,
each contest goes three, two-minute rounds, with a one minute rest period between rounds.
A stopwatch marks time. A voice calls "seconds out" as each rest period wanes. A
mechanical bell signals the beginning and end of each round with a sound somewhat alien to
the club. Daily, the synthesized sounds accompany the cycle of green, yellow, and red
lights atop the Ringside electronic timer that automatically tracks each round. The contestants emerge from their corners with a respectful
caution. The presence of the onlookers makes this activity different than the normal
sparring that goes on as part of the training.
The boxers meander through the ring to the center.
Punches are cautiously traded. While of similar weight and experience, each
boxer is unique in temperament. The coach circles the action examining technique
from different angles. The detailed critique will come later. Right now,
safety is paramount. The boxers soon become more animated. Punches go from
being thrown one-at-a-time as if selected from a menu, to reactive programmed
combinations, to more automatic and adaptive. Soon the disparate elements come
together as the round progresses. |
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