What are the "Rites of Passage" to Being a Boxing Fan?

A fan knows the sport didn't start with
Floyd Mayweather Jr. Groupies believe
it did......

 

The biggest rite of passage for a fan is actually attending a fight card.

Anyone can click a button and watch a fight.

Buy a ticket. Drive to the arena. Entering the building and seeing a ring set up with lights trained on it is always an exhilerating experience.

When you go in person, especially if you're sitting close, you realize how different it is than on television.

There are usually even fighters mulling around the arena. Most are happy to talk. Say hello.

 

If you can watch Johnny Nelson V Carlos De Leon 3 times in a row you are a fan, and have my respect for doing it.

 

Very few have watched it once and survived!

 

I watched this and was amazed when I tallied my score card, and I am a Whitaker fan!

 

I was fortunate that my dad took me to amateur cards when I was a kid — like at a local junior high school. I was addicted immediately.

One of the things that makes the biggest impression live is how much more an effective jab impacts when you see it live vs. TV.

But the best thing is interacting with the crowd, the conversations you can have. And how many times I’ve been able to chat with name fighters at live events (even when they’re not fighting). Ran into David Reid at the National Golden Gloves and said hello and a fight started and we ended up standing side by side watching the whole fight and him asking me what I thought about this guy or that tactic as much as I asked him. Just two fight fans watching a fight together. Or the time I talked to Sean O’Grady before a Tuesday Night Fights card, went up to say hi and was wearing a Rolling Stones tour shirt as I had seen them a day or two before and Sean went to see them earlier in the same tour and we probably talked for 5 minutes about The Rolling Stones, haha.

These things are priceless.

 

Heartaches. Lots of heartaches. Connecting with a fighter or fighters who almost win a big fight, but just can't quite get there. Boxing is made up of a lot more interesting fighters than just the front-runners. You aren't really a fan until you recognize this and suffer through it. Just my opinion.

 

My personal rite of passage was having a Dad and older brother who were into boxing. It made me cognisant of real time and past fighters when I was very young - at an age when a kid most definitely wouldn’t be taking it on board naturally. Lots of old boxing mags lying around which I read also.

 

I think watching someone you think will earn greatness fail, on a career level, no matter how close you think they get is kind of a serious boxing head rite of passage.

Also, years-long naysaying the same fighter you think is overly hyped until you have to recognise they are great or at least excellent is another thing. It's fun for all.

Rooting for a hard luck fighter you think always gets shafted or underrated or downplayed and being deflated when they get punched up or elated when they pull off a big upset or put up that fight that makes them loved.

I've had one or more of these with everyone from Ray Mercer to Chocolatito. I've been through the wringer with James Toney and JMM. I don't think a serious boxing fan hasn't had at least one of these. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Except for the part where I get proved wrong. I hate that part. That part is worthless garbage. It's inhumane.

 

Dunno if there really any such thing as "rites of passage" for boxing fans. But I recall one special thing that we had in the old days that you just don't see anymore ~ the many old boxing clubs on top of, say, warehouses, store fronts, and movie houses in Brooklyn and elsewhere. I remember when I was a little kid hanging out with my dad and his many amigos in those places back in the day. The atmosphere, the smells, the chatter ~ all very special.

 

At this point in time, if somebody tells me she or he is a boxing fan, I am buying it! We can use all of the fans we can get!

 

Discover Sam Langford.

 

Some believe you aren’t a true boxing fan unless …

1) You accept that Roberto Duran gained and lost 300 pounds in five months between Leonard fights.

2) You believe Mike Tyson should have an asterisk next to every one of his losses, because how could Mike Tyson ever lose unless there were mysterious forces at play.

3) You get a hard-on at the mere mention of the name “Klitschko.”

 

Two questions, Pat. How is the jab different? How it snaps a head back? Looks more painful?

Secondly, what was David Reid like? I always rooted for him. Seemed a good guy. It was sad how things panned out and if anyone knows how he is doing, I'd be interested to know, please.

 

1) It has more impact, as you noted, snapping the head back, but also marks up the face (if it’s a good jab). Apart from seeing it live, the best illustration I’ve seen is a photo or two from the Holmes-Cooney fight that ran in, I think it was either Time or Sports Illustrated. Cooney’s face was reddened in spots to the point that it looked like someone had splashed him with boiling water. TV never gives you that.

2) Reid was as nice as he could be. He was working with a fighter at the NGG (or maybe it was more than one, I forget) but didn’t have anyone fighting that session. Just standing a ways back from the ring watching. I approached him between fights to say hello and tell him how much I always enjoyed watching him fight. He was very gracious. And then he asked me where I was from, what I do for a living and such and when a fight started we turned our attention and it was like, ‘Look at his jab, what do you think of it,’ ‘He needs to tuck his chin in,’ ‘I like how he goes to the body,’ that kind of thing. I couldn’t tell you for the life of me who we were watching, but I remember thinking ‘I’m standing here with an Olympic gold medalist and world champion watching a fight and we’re just talking boxing like two regular fans.’ After the fight he shook my hand and we went our separate ways. I’ll always like the guy for being so cool.

EDIT: As for how things turned out and all that, this was like late 2000s and I can say when I meet him he seemed very happy and content, really in his element at a big amateur fight event. Nothing big-time about him, he was just … in his element. I don’t think it would have bothered him a bit if no one recognized him.