What Was The First Fight You Watched?

Ali-Holmes was the first fight i remember watching. i always followed the sport somewhat but became a fight freak after the first tyson-holyfield bout.

 

ali/ holmes abc replay when i was 8 yrs old

 

My first present was a pair of baby boxing gloves. All the male members of my family are boxing fans. I don't think i needed one fight to embrace the game.

 

Ali vs Frazier I

On vacation in Vegas watching it in the hotel on tv. Some documentary about the fight.

 

Barkely/Nunn was the first fight that I made plans of my own in advanced to watch, before watching it.

I went with some friends to a Pizza Parlor to watch Tyson/Spinks.

Chavez/Taylor I was the first fight I watched as a "boxing fan"

 

All I know is that it started off like this:

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Nothing, really. I was a toddler, and I was staring from what we used to call 'rr guh fuhhhh' or 'the death rock' and since I was on death rock duty, it's not like I had much else to watch. :conf

It grew on me, though, after Ruh started trash talking Guf and saying he was on some kind of illegal fish **** that gives you stamina. It got very interesting, let me tell you. He was all 'Uh? Guhhhhhhh!' You know, indignant.

Later we found out that fish didn't even pee. But that was a long time after.

 

When I was a little kid, Nickelodeon had a Black History Month special on Muhammad Ali, with the background song "Black Superman" advertising it. I was about 8, and I eventually did a report I had to do on an athletic role model on Muhammad Ali. I remember seeing the footage and listening to the educated bravado, all the while thinking to my young chubby self, "This man was special. This man was important." Seeing him glide around the ring further convinced me that the sport was an art. Of course, I was only 8. I wanted to be a policeman before that, then an inventor, and when my aunt asked what I wanted to be, I randomly said "a boxer", half-joking, then changed my mind at the fleeting thought of all the punishment I'd take. Again, I was only 8, and this was as far as it had gotten until about ten years later (besides being repulsed at the news of Mike Tyson's ear-biting stunt.)

After following numerous action movies and cartoons like Batman:TAS on TV, boxing to me was a dignified sport in theory and in its history, but one I never watched; I considered Eastern martial arts superior forms of fighting as a little kid naively influenced by entertainment.

A decade later, my close Filipino friend had a sudden interest in boxing after we spent a summer apart, and I was intrigued; he was trying to understand the sport in order to relate to Filipino Phenom Manny Pacquiao, whom I only knew by name and likely from commercials. Watching fights like Pacquia-Morales and Pacquiao-Barrera, I was impressed by the little guy's speed, but something seemed off to me; I said, "this is the best fighter in the world? He's so wild, how does he not pay for his recklessness?" I now realize what Pacquiao does in the ring is supremely complicated, but I was unsatisfied with this hunch I had in the back of my head

I also met his friend, an amateur boxer. He taught me a few basic fundamentals, and my eyes were opened to how complex and technical fighting really was, and how in the dark the average person (and even many trained combatants) really was.

Then, I was shown Pacquiao-Marquez 1. I was informed that someone had seemingly tamed Pacquiao with superior skill, and upon watching Juan Manuel get up three times and time Pacquiao with his elite fundamental skill-set and ballsy counter-punching style, I thought to myself: "That's a fighter. That's what the game is supposed to be about." From then on, I was sucked into the world of boxing, with all of its drama and mechanical nuances. I started to box myself, delved into what history I could watching hours and hours of footage (especially to get a sense of public opinion before/during certain past events and differentiate myself from revisionist boxrec newbs) and the rest is history.

The most poignant moment after that to further solidify my interest that I can remember is the moment at the end of the 3rd episode of Mayweather-Marquez 24/7 when the musical chorus climaxes and the fountains of the MGM Grand spout up against the backdrop of Las Vegas Lights and the flames of a Mexican street performer sizzle across the screen , after the Narrator vividly paints the picture: "Next Saturday Night, Mexican Fortitude confronts American Swagger, in a clash of two vastly different men from two vastly different places." I remember feeling in that moment, "Wow. Boxing is awesome." There was absolutely no turning back then.

Sorry for the long-winded post, OP; there was no single event I could point to in order to answer your question, and I found myself caught up in recounting the beginnings of my obsessive admiration for the sport. But there you have it.

 

Larry Holmes-Carl Williams was the first fight I watched but I remember seeing the Sports Illlustrated cover of the first Leonard-Hearns war on a magazine rack in a drug store. I kept asking my Dad who the good guy was and he said Leonard. I mean, Hearns looked evil with those stoic eyes. Plus Leonard won the fight. The good guy always wins. I must have been 4 years old. That Christmas I got a pair of Sugar Ray Leonard boxing gloves.

 

First fight I remember was Holyfield vs Tyson I......