My friend Ken and I attended the "Lightweight Lighting" boxing match at the Erwin Center in Austin last night. The event, even though a HBO pay per view extravaganza sponsored by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Productions, had a second tier feeling to it. Oscar himself was nowhere in sight. Not that that is a bad thing. Minor league games have an earthy quality that is lacking at the upper levels of the corporate sports market. A good deal of blood was shed from facial cuts in last night's fights. Blood is different when viewed in person. Boxing gives you a lot of drama from the high stakes nature of personal combat and from the audience's visceral reaction to that combat. The audience was heavily male.
The female fans scattered around the arena made a fashion statement, best described as form-fitting. Maybe the boxing environment brings out female aggression too. The women chose to display their physical attributes to advantage, mirror images of the three Tecate Round Card models. The Tecate girls job consisted of proclaiming the upcoming round and then climbing sexily through the ring ropes and back to the sidelines. Think Vanna White, but in her underwear and carrying letters, actually the word "Round" and a number-- like "Round 6". The Tecate girls were hot, very Anglo and much admired. Tecate seems resistant to diversity hiring -- but if fight action falters, we always have the Round Girls.
I got the feeling we were all involved in the creating of a TV show. There were a couple of thousand people, a real audience no doubt, but the TV cameras and Big Screens above the ring made me feel like a backdrop to an event happening somewhere else, out in TV land. TV is where the money is... and the Big Screen TV was the only place we saw Oscar. Maybe the smart money stays home these days, perched in front of the flat screen. Real life is bit of real work.
But I had a high moment you cannot get at home. A twenty-something guy seated next to me, earring and cap on his head, told me he had been to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events at the Erwin Center but his heart was really with boxing. "I used to watch Friday Night Fights with my father," he said. "He had two jobs and so it was our time together. " We only spoke for a few minutes more. The headline fight came via a lightning knockout, just as billed. We went our separate ways. The young man's comments were the surprise moment for me-- and they would not be available on pay-per-view.
