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Weekends Boxing 15/3 (Spence-Garcia, Carroll-Farmer, Taylor-Volante, Conlan in MSG)
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Well that was some weekend!
First Philly friday with the temperatures in the 70s and something I always wanted to do was go to Joe Frazier's old gym. Indeed on my first visit to this great city in 2008 I should have done it as Joe was alive as was his gym. Anyway it is now a furniture store and the lady behind the counter said that she has fight fans coming in every day! Says I could buy the building for $250,000 too! For anyone interested the gym was on the ground floor (the natives call this the first floor) and now the two floors above it are closed but when Joe was there he lived upstairs:
Then train down to the venue to get my ticket as this saves on those infernal fees here. Cheapest ticket was $45 and by this stage the first bout was due to start but had been cancelled. Then I walked down to another boxing treasure where Hopkins had fought and also staged scenes in Rocky V:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Horizon
Thankfully like Joe's gym it has historic designation so cannot be demolished. The pics of the ring inside are gorgeous and according to some youtube videos one can try the phone number scrawled on the door and someone will let you in for $20. I demurred!
So got to the venue just as Sulecki was getting his fans into a frenzy but I had already seen him get beat by Jacobs so Katie was first fight I saw. Nice tight venue with every seat having a great view. As I was strolling down to my seat I met a Dundalk fan from Philly! His wife is from Dundalk and as a Rovers fan we both chatted for a while about our league. Amazing we can't get enough people at home to go to games and here's a guy from Philly who knew more about our league than most!
Anyway Katie was dominant again and her footwork, strength, combinations were totally demoralizing for her brave opponent for another history setting moment in Irish sport. Volante was no match for her speed and accuracy and won every round. In the fifth she really damaged the Brazilian and the writing was on the wall and the stoppage was inevitable. I'm sure everyone is delighted that Katie is earning serious purses to justify her status and the march to unified is on.
Next up Jono versus the Champ. Fair amount of Irish in some unfortunately wearing those stupid leprechaun suits but a good atmosphere as the challenger comes out in that leprechaun nonsense and gets the crowd going like the good salesman he is! Overall no doubting the victor but to be fair to Carroll he went the distance and threw a huge amount. Farmer was too slick and accurate though and was never in danger and should have finished it in the penultimate round. Good to see them hanging out together the day after too.
After the fight Demetrius Andrade was interviewed in front of me. This time he had no balaclava like from when I saw him fight in January! Saw him outside with his girl and nobody knew who he was.
The highlight of this boxing weekend was next as John Joe Nevin was the float fight and the stewards said everybody could come down to ringside so walked down to see Sugar Ray Leonard get mobbed! Came very near to a selfie but instead got to shake his hand! Up close he looks incredible and he didn't have to engage with the fans so fair play:
Interesting perspective viewing this bout from ringside as JJ won this bout against a game Colombian in a 6 rounder and by time I got a selfie with our Olympic medalist it was pushing 1am so only time for a couple of scoops in my favorite bar. But a great day overall and here's hoping there are more of these nights in Philly.
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Onto NY next day for Conlan fight. Straight to the box office where I got a ticket for $31 and enquired about the Joshua fight where the cheapest ticket still available is $270.
Busy weekend as one can imagine and was otherwise occupied to miss Paddy Barnes but got there in plenty of time for the main event. My section was 205 and seat was up the top but noticed rows of seats down towards the front empty so moved down for a better view. Hernandez came out of the left entrance where Conlan came out before but this time I guess it looked better him appearing from the back straight down the middle to the tune of the Wolfe Tones. I wondered what Adam Booth thought of the "Ooh Ah Up The Ra" chant being lustily sung while he was walking down under the tricolour:
No doubting how relaxed and confident Conlan looked early on particularly when he was switching stances but overall this fight definitely sobered the crowd! All in all not much to report as it was a very professional performance from Conlan as he outboxed this hardy Mexican who had been on with Donaire.
But one can only wonder how many more of these nights can he have here. The crowd was significantly down on the previous occasions and while he said he wanted the big room next year this is not realistic as he won't be ready for a World title challenge in 12 months.
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Onto NY next day for Conlan fight. Straight to the box office where I got a ticket for $31 and enquired about the Joshua fight where the cheapest ticket still available is $270.
Busy weekend as one can imagine and was otherwise occupied to miss Paddy Barnes but got there in plenty of time for the main event. My section was 205 and seat was up the top but noticed rows of seats down towards the front empty so moved down for a better view. Hernandez came out of the left entrance where Conlan came out before but this time I guess it looked better him appearing from the back straight down the middle to the tune of the Wolfe Tones. I wondered what Adam Booth thought of the "Ooh Ah Up The Ra" chant being lustily sung while he was walking down under the tricolour:
No doubting how relaxed and confident Conlan looked early on particularly when he was switching stances but overall this fight definitely sobered the crowd! All in all not much to report as it was a very professional performance from Conlan as he outboxed this hardy Mexican who had been on with Donaire.
But one can only wonder how many more of these nights can he have here. The crowd was significantly down on the previous occasions and while he said he wanted the big room next year this is not realistic as he won't be ready for a World title challenge in 12 months.
Sounds like a bloody fantastic weekend shoveller!!!
Are you living in the states or you went over for the boxing/paddy’s day?
Was strongly considering it but the finances wouldn’t allow it this year.0 -
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Onto NY next day for Conlan fight. Straight to the box office where I got a ticket for $31 and enquired about the Joshua fight where the cheapest ticket still available is $270.
Busy weekend as one can imagine and was otherwise occupied to miss Paddy Barnes but got there in plenty of time for the main event. My section was 205 and seat was up the top but noticed rows of seats down towards the front empty so moved down for a better view. Hernandez came out of the left entrance where Conlan came out before but this time I guess it looked better him appearing from the back straight down the middle to the tune of the Wolfe Tones. I wondered what Adam Booth thought of the "Ooh Ah Up The Ra" chant being lustily sung while he was walking down under the tricolour:
No doubting how relaxed and confident Conlan looked early on particularly when he was switching stances but overall this fight definitely sobered the crowd! All in all not much to report as it was a very professional performance from Conlan as he outboxed this hardy Mexican who had been on with Donaire.
But one can only wonder how many more of these nights can he have here. The crowd was significantly down on the previous occasions and while he said he wanted the big room next year this is not realistic as he won't be ready for a World title challenge in 12 months.
Conlan's last fight in Belfast was the same, crowd were lively all night but were basically asleep by the end of his fight.0
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