What's your first live fight? What's the earliest fight someone told you about that THEY saw live?

My first TV fight was at age 7, nearly 8 - Muhammad Ali vs. Ron Lyle. There was a lot of hype about it at the time because this was the first heavyweight championship to be shown on free prime-time network TV in several years, which is why my dad, not a super-huge boxing fan, wanted to tune in. I was actually upset because I couldn't watch Sanford and Son.

Soon after I was hooked. I caught every TV fight I could. My dad followed along with me.

A couple years later, late '77 I'd guess, my dad started taking me to amateur cards in nearby Eureka, CA. At one point - early '78 maybe - they brought in Jerry Quarry as a celebrity guest referee.

In '85 I'd joined the Navy and my interest in boxing waned a bit. I still kept up, but not as much as before. I didn't make a point to tune in to every fight like when I was younger. I was stationed in Norfolk, VA for a three years. I'd lost interest enough to never make a point to see one of Pernell Whitaker's local bouts until I was a couple weeks away from getting out of the Navy. I'd seen Whitaker shopping at a local record store - he was browsing the 12-inch dance singles - on a Saturday evening. I didn't say anything to him. I knew was fighting Jose Luis Ramirez the next afternoon. Sunday morning I was eating breakfast and thought to myself, "I'm leaving this town in two weeks. I call myself a boxing fan and I've never been to a pro fight card. I need to go to see Pernell fight. It's my last opportunity and I'll regret it if I don't." So I took a bus downtown that afternoon and enjoyed the fight. Whitaker's teammates were there - Melderick Taylor, Holyfield, Mark Breland (nice guy) with his little boy and I saw them up close signing autographs and mingling with fans after the fight.

My second card, and only other one to date, was the Sam Peter - Jameel McCline card at Madison Square Garden in October 2007. It was a similar situation as above. I was in New York visiting a friend, just kind of exploring Manhattan on a Saturday night by myself, and just kinda went, "I'm in New York City. There's a heavyweight championship at the Garden tonight. I need to head down and see if I can get a ticket." Y'know, just to have the experience of seeing fights at the Garden (where I'd never been before). 30 minutes or so later I was in my seat watching the undercard. I made a point to call my dad, then in an ultimately unsuccessful battle with cancer, who I'd watched a ton of fights with over the years, and from my seat tell him excitedly that I was in Madison Square Garden (!!) watching a heavyweight championship (!!!).

 

My pop started taking me to local amateur smokers in the 1970s when I was probaby 8 or 10 years old. I get my love of the sport from him.

Over the years he took the family to a few vacation getaways that revolved around boxing. We saw Tyson-Spinks (as well as fights that week in AC including Hector Camacho, Big George Foreman and Azumah Nelson) and we went to Atlanta to see Holyfield-Qawi I.

One of my favorite memories, we went to the Mississippi coast to see one of Larry Holmes’ comeback tour fights (pretty sure it was a USA Network one, can’t honesty recall the opponent) and we ran into Larry in a concourse in the casino the day before. We said hello and told him we were there to see him fight, and he stopped to chat for a minute. Larry then looked at my father, who’s in his 60s at that time, and says, “I’ll fight you!!! You’re next!!! I’m tired of fighting these young guys so I’m going to fight you!!!” And he playfully started jabbing at my dad. Then he posed with us for a picture and said he had to go rest up for the fight. Really cool shared experience with my pop.

We haven’t been to a live fight together for some time and might never get to do so again, but I’ve had him over for a few PPVs ... I made a last-minute decision to get Mayweather-Pac and called my pop and he brought over some chicken wings and we had a nice little boxing party. Fight was a dud, but I wouldn’t trade those hours with him for anything, we had a great time.

If your pop was a boxing fan who got you interested in the sport, whether he’s still around or not crack open a cold one or whatever is appropriate next time you watch a fight. Or if you can, invite him over.

 

My dad and uncle Ray attended the Patterson-London fight at the Coliseum here in Indy in May 1959. Interesting that Floyd fought Ingo a scant one month later, since his early HW reign saw many months of gaps between defenses. Of course Dad told me how well Floyd carried himself as a Champion so, at age 5-6, I immediately became a boxing fan and a Patterson lover for life!

Sidebar: an old Korean War drinking bud of mine was also there and told me (years later) that Ingo was at that fight with his girlfriend and was running around the ring taking pictures throughout the fight.

 

First live fight on tv was Patterson-Chuvalo....and it was actually two fights at once...one was Patterson-Chuvalo, and the other one was me constantly fighting with my uncle who kept switching the channel to a damned basketball game that he wanted to see.

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aggravated the absolute hell out of me, but what the hell, I was only 12 yrs old at the time.

 

jowcol, surely they took you along to Patterson-London? If they didn't, that would surely have been grounds for a fight, even considering your age at the time.

 

First live fight for me was Roy Jones vs Glen Johnson. Sadly not too many greats come around the south.