In the great tradition of boxing against authoritarianism, portland copwatch held a boxing benefit last weekend in a random north Portland backyard. Around 80-odd dirty punks (many probably ridden with bloodborn, infectious diseases) from across the city met in the ring to box their friends while wearing heavy one-pound gloves. Those who did not want to punch their friends into submission were allowed to gamble on or against them. The house took 15 percent off the top towards stopping future violence. Noses were bloodied as a tie-die shirt wearing hippy went back and forth between chanting about Krishna and yelling, "kill him! punch him in the face!" One young man used an unorthodox, cartoon fighting technique against his best friend, winding up his arm in circles before letting go an upper-cut to his friend's face. Oddly, his victim never seemed to see it coming, but took the windmill blows in stride. None of the fights went all of the designated five rounds of two minutes; most were called for technical knockouts by the third.
While some may be inclined to dismiss such a benefit as contradictory (as I am tempted to). If we put this in the perspective of history, there were many politicized fighters, such as Joe Lewis in his bout with Max Schmeling (who was used by the Nazis, though he was an anti-fascist) (above), the handsome Johann Trollman who once powdered his face in defiance of Nazi officials who forbade him to win a title (below), Werner Seelenbender the communist, German (Greco-Roman) wrestler, and, of course, Ali.
[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Random Entry
