At the weekend Brandon was invited to his boxing club to
participate in a little exhibition at the start of their Memorial boxing event
against the Marines. I have been to professional boxing events in the past, but
this was my first amateur boxing event and was a real eye opener for me as to
the seriousness and the culture of amateur boxing events. The Billericay and
Wickford boxing club had completely transformed itself to put on the show for a
crowd of up to 500 people. The training floors were all covered up, ring
lighting, chairs and barriers set up, Marine bunting and flags everywhere,
catering for food/drinks set-up, security gazebo outside with metal detection
and searches, ring side judge seating and round bell, pa system, medical crew
on hand, ring announcers, proper referees with latex gloves etc.etc. It amazed
me the amount of time, effort, money and organising that goes in to putting on
an amateur event.
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| This picture doesn't do justice to the amount of effort and the transformation of the gym to support the event. |
You can see why the security is very important at these
events when you look at the culture of an amateur boxing event and the necessity
for crown control when things start getting a bit rowdy. Maybe I am stereotyping
the people that go to these events, but I have never seen so many balding, meat
head, flat nosed people in one venue before. Loads of flat caps, tattoos and
everyone seemingly appearing to be eyeing up everyone else. As an outsider
having never been to an amateur boxing event it can definitely be a bit
intimidating and that’s coming from someone who has done karate for 25+
years!!!
Before the event started the MC introduced all of the young
lads from the development squad of Billericay and Wickford boxing club which
included Brandon. It was a great experience for them to have their name called
out and to climb up in the ring under the lights in front of a packed out
crowd. They then had the little ones run through a series of little training
drills doing sit-ups, press-ups, shadow boxing and so on. So no real fighting, no
contact, just a good opportunity to get them in a ring and in front of a crowd.
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| Brandon all ready for his boxing exhibition. |
After the exhibition the event really kicked in to action
with a military style trumpet player signalling the minutes silence and then
the national anthem being played. All the fighters from local clubs that were
taking on the Marines where then brought in to the ring to square off and
exchange pre-fight gifts (which looked like a plaque). Once all the intros and exchanges were completed with the carded
fighters, the show started with some of the junior boxers participating in what
is called a “skills contest”. These boys must have been about 10/11 years old
and basically did 3x1min rounds. We couldn’t stay for long as I had Holly with
me, but Brandon wanted to stay and watch one fight. It was funny sitting with
him as he asked me if there would be lots of blood! Anyway the junior boxers
were very respectful to the ref and the opposing fighters corner team which was
nice to see, then the bell rang and we witnessed a very fast paced 3x1min with
both kids giving it their all. At the end of the fight there is no winner or
loser as it is a skills contest and both fighters have their hand raised.
After watching the fight the realisation set in that this
will be the next progression for Brandon and it really starts to get you
thinking about how you would feel and react when one of your own is in the
ring. It even crossed my mind that I am not sure whether I would want to watch
one of Brandon’s fights but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. As we
were leaving I asked Brandon whether he thinks he is up to one of these 3x1min
skills contests and he said yes, so I guess his boxing journey continues for a
bit longer……. nervous times ahead.
