Yesterday my host brothers took me to a boxing competition here in Zhytomyr. As the world heavyweight boxing champion, Vitali Klitchko, is a Ukrainian, there's a lot of national pride in the sport and a lot of younger guys have dreams of being a champion.
The competition was in a poorly lit gym with cobwebs in the corners, packed to the walls with people. There were a few wooden benches taken by people already there, but most people, including me, simply stood around the ring and watched people pummel each other. There were a few women there, but they were severely outnumbered. There were also some kids running around, hitting at each other, trying to immitate the men in the ring
It was the lighter weight divisions that day (I don't know all the terminology), most of the boxers still in their teens. There were two sets of gloves and headgear being passed from fighter to fighter as they cycled into the ring for three-round bouts. Very often the boxers kept pushing the ill-fitting headgear out of their faces (which is usually when the other guy would attack). Most didn't even have boxing shoes and were fighting in Keds, socks pulled up to their knees.
Not a lot of technique was apparent, mostly people swinging wildly at each other until someone went down. The knockdowns were actually few. Only two matches went the three rounds because as soon as someone would start loosing badly, their corner would throw in the towel.
Literally. I was watching this one guy, gloves in front of his face, being stalked and pummeled around the ring and suddenly this white thing was flying through the air and nearly onto the referee. It was a towel.
Four other matches were called in such a way, the loosing boxer usually visibly upset that the fight had stopped, sure that if he got pummeled just a little longer he'd figure out a way to win.
The heavier end of the lightweight spectrum came at the end, older, heavily muscled guys in their twenties who knew what they were doing. But as soon as it started getting better, there were no more matches. The heavier weights are scheduled for today, but I was unable to go. Sergei may be fighting in another competition in two weeks, so maybe I'll see that one.
In any case, it was certainly a raw form of boxing. Maybe purists would say it's the right way to box. There were no entourages, no music, no thousand dollar ring side seats. There were just a hundred Ukrainians and me standing around a ring and watching a series of fights, one after the other, the combatants getting into the ring without being announced, the referee dropping his hand and then they would fight.
I'm not saying it was good or bad or anything. But it was interesting.