Our FOB held a “smoker”, an amateur boxing match, the other night in the gym, and it was the most well-attended MWR event ever. Hundreds of spectators came to watch about 12-14 matches, two of which featured female fighters. One female match was planned in advance, but the other was just two soldiers who got inspired and decided to box. The skinny fast female won that, because she’d throw a few punches then run behind the referee.
Weights ran from a low of 145 pounds to a high of around 250 pounds, and most of the matches were pretty even. One match, a grudge match I guess, was between soldiers in the same unit. However, one fighter weighed around 200 lbs and 6 feet tall, the other 250 lbs, 6 ft 6 inches. The big guy won.
Most of the fighters just went out and flailed away, throwing a spectacular number of punches. All of them were exhausted by the last, the third, round. Round were two minutes with a one minute rest between. The referee was pretty aggressive about protecting the boxers, and he stopped over half of the matches. Our surgeon was there and checked out the pugilists as well.
The rounds started off with an air horn to start and stop rounds, but it ran dry and they ended up using a whistle. Only two helmets and two sets of boxing gloves were available, so the time between fights was a bit slow.
The guys who spend lots of time in the gym preferred to fight with their shirts off. One of the female boxers has her dad here, and he was in her corner giving her the benefit of his boxing wisdom. Another boxer, one of the heavyweights, has his wife here, and she was in his corner.
You’ve heard the saying, don’t bring a knife to a gun fight. Well that night, most people brought guns to a boxing match.
No comments:
Post a Comment