First big fight you went to?

I had been to many live fights before, as well as closed-circuit (a great experience to take in an event remotely with fellow enthusiasts cheering as if they were really there, lost to the emergence of PPV ... but I digress) -- but the first BIG one I went to was ... Tyson-Spinks.

All 91 seconds of it.

Great experience. I was a couple of years out of college and my dad decided to take the family and got us hotel rooms in AC and tickets (not nosebleed, but not ringside, either).

So, 91 seconds? Who cares? I was THERE.

I'd rate my experience as 10 out of 10. Why? Well, it's the experience of going to the fight. It's walking out on the Boardwalk after and a couple of hours later picking up newspapers that already had coverage on the front page.

But it's more than that. It wasn't just one day, it was the whole thing.

I found myself sitting down next to the late, great artist Leroy Neiman was he was sketching (alongside his attractive young lady "assistant") ... and he couldn't have been nicer. He was sketching along, never looking up, asking me where I was from, who I thought would win, etc. I'd seen much of his work (boxing and otherwise) and was in awe. My little brother at the time collected autographs and I meekly asked if he could sign something and personalize it and he drew a little diddle of some sort and signed it with a flourish and a smile.

We saw Hector Camacho fight one night and Big (old) George Foreman the next, "special editions" of Tuesday Night Fights, as I recall.

And the day before the big fight, CBS had an Azumah Nelson defense against Lupe Suarez, who was trained by Angelo Dundee ... and I had met Dundee a few years before because he was working with a guy from my hometown. So after the fight I wandered over by the locker room area and saw Angelo and he recognized me ... and invited me into the locker room!!! Suarez was, of course, unhappy that he lost, but Angelo introduced me to him and his father and they were great guys.

Our family got to walk the Boardwalk together and check out all the shops and casinos and the place was alive with excitement.

What I remember about the undercard was that it had Carl "The Truth" Williams over Trevor Berbick, Razor Ruddock in an easy win and this guy I'd never seen, had a great jab, who put on a pretty good show. His name was Buster Douglas.

I've been to some other big fights since, but this was an experience of a lifetime for a young man.

(Oddly, went to my parents' house today for lunch and my Pop brought up the trip and said he screwed up on the hotel - it was budget-rate - and tickets - he wished he had gotten us closer to the action - and I stopped him and said, "Pop, you remember that differently than I do -- as far as I'm concerned, we all got to go to one of the biggest heavyweight championship fights of our time. It was a great experience, and we owe it all to you!")

 

After watching boxing for close to 30 years, I didn't attend a professional fight until last month when Klitschko returned to the U.S.

PROS:

- Attending my first fight ever was a rush, let alone being inside MSG, the site of so many amazing fights.

- Seeing the enthusiastic Ukrainians in the crowd, with face paint, jerseys and flags, screaming every time Klitschko scored.

- Finally hearing Michael Buffer's patented introduction live.

- Hearing Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield announced as being in the crowd

- Seeing a long-standing heavyweight champion continue his defense streak

CONS:

- Rap music blasting between every fight and between every round. Nothing against rap music but I would rather not hear music during a fight.

- The fight was disappointing. No knockdowns, no one was hurt. Rather pedestrian 12-round affair.

- The tickets were very expensive. With tax, my wife and I paid around $650 each.

Still, it was an exciting event to be a part of.

 

Awesome post, Saint. What a great memory!

 

Thanks guys.

Jimmy: your post about the past champs being introduced reminded me -- they introduced Muhammad Ali, who was there for Tyson-Spinks, as he made his way to his seat at ringside.

I got to chant Ali ... Ali ... Ali along with the entire crowd. Everyone in my section actually stood up, and I think almost everyone there did. I'd say it went on a good 5 minutes or more at full voice.

EDIT: I just remembered, when Donald Trump was introduced he got loudly booed, haha.

I've been to a lot of big athletic events in my time -- college football championship games, NCAA basketball, a NASCAR race, pro baseball and football games, even pro surfing (Kelly Slater is a BOSS); too many things to even think of them all -- but I've been to four heavyweight championship fights in person: Tyson-Spinks, Holyfield-Cooper, Holyfield-Bean and Wilder-Stiverne.

One, obviously, was bigger than the rest (the manchild beast winning the lineal title ... we know now what happened, but at the time I think a lot of experts thought Spinks might be able to weather the storm and give Tyson a boxing lesson, or at least a competitive fight), but they had this much in common: of all athletic events I have ever attended, nothing approaches the electricity and excitement in the 30 seconds before the first bell and 60 seconds after in a heayweight title fight.

No other sport (OK, MMA or amateur wrestling, but you'll get my point) has the element that it can be over as soon as it begins with one big punch: a baseball player can hit a home run on his first at-bat and they're playing 9 innings, a football team can return the opening kickoff for a touchdown, but they're playing 4 quarters.

But Mike Tyson (or Holyfield or Wilder or any other heavyweight) can end things in decisive and explosive factor at literally any point. So there's always that tension that the next punch could be it ... especially right at the start before any pattern settles in.

For Tyson-Spinks, that factor was there X100 -- because it's Mike Freakin' Tyson. It was like watching a tiger devour its prey. His punches were a blur and they had that patented "bad intentions" attitude behind them.

He was mesmerizing in his ferocity. I remember him actually missing a big punch, I think a hook, along the ropes, by an inch or so and Spinks seemed to just shrink ... in my belief, he knew at that moment that it was a matter of time.

I remember, live, seeing Tyson in the neutral corner after Spinks went down -- not sure if it was the voluntary knee from the body shot or the knockout punch -- draw the line of a dagger across his throat with the thumb of his glove.

The crowd wasn't just stunned by the quick knockout, as I remember it, but by the animal magnetism of Tyson and the sheer savagery of his presence and attack.

 

John L Sullivan vs James j Corbett.....when i was still young

 

How much allowance did you get during the Great Depression?

 

Thanks, Brix. We had good seats. Section 108, Row 10. More than we wanted to spend, but we made an exception since Klitschko rarely fights in the U.S. and is probably close to the end of his career.

 

Saint, amazing post. Being able to chant for Ali and seeing one of Mike's greatest moments live. Wow.

Agree with your other comments about the electricity around a Tyson fight. It was something else. I still remember it...

Also, noticed you attended Holyfield-Cooper in ATL. What a fight! Bert becomes the first man to knock Evander down. But Evander did what he always does and rallied back. How many uppercuts did he land, again? Damn!

 

I also was in Atlanta for Holyfield-Qawi I ... best fight I've ever seen live without question.

Cool on getting to see Wlad fight live. And in the Garden!!! Would love to see a big fight in the Big Apple!