As a “contemporary boxing fan,” tonight was my first chance to see a boxing match in a movie theater. The last fight to be shown in movie theaters was Oscar De La Hoya vs Julio Cesar Chavez in 1996. At the time I was just a kid and I was not following boxing. The fight began at 9:00 so I decided I would get to the theater half an hour early for the fight. I brought along my UFC loving brother so show him what boxing is really about.
We arrived at the theater at about 8:35. To our surprise, the theater was already packed with almost all the good seats taken. Fortunately we found some good seats near the top that looked almost dead center onto the big screen. Just a few minutes after we got seated, large groups of people started coming into the theater and struggled to find seating. They were forced to sit in the front. Living in suburban Detroit, Michigan, we were surprised to see that the theater was this crowed…I had no idea there were so many boxing fans in the area. By the time the first televised undercard fight started, the theater was sold out.
The first fight featured Detroit’s Cornelius Locke (19-4-1, 12 KO’s) vs Orlando Cruz (16-1-1, 7 KO’s) of Puerto Rico. Locke, being our hometown fighter, received a roar from the crowd in the theater. There were some Puerto Ricans in attendance and they gave Cruz a hearty cheer as well. The first round got underway with both fighters coming out quickly and exchanging. It was clear that Locke was the faster of the two and he began catching Cruz. Cruz had his moments but in the last forty seconds of round one, Locke caught him with a nice right hook that took away his legs and then landed a left hand to put him down heavily. Cruz hung on and made it out of the round. For the next few rounds, Cruz seemed to find his pace and put effective pressure on Locke who seemed to be losing his confidence. In round five this all changed however, as Locke came out quickly and landed some solid combinations. He dropped Cruz onto the canvas with an uppercut at 2:08 of the round. Cruz failed to beat the count, giving Locke his nineteenth victory. After the fight, Locke put on a Detroit Tigers hat and the crowd in the theater went crazy.
The next fight pitted Vicente Escobedo (21-2, 13 KO’s) against Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KO’s) for the WBO interim lightweight title. This fight was probably the most exciting fight of the night. Katsidis came forward the entire fight, landing plenty of bombs on Escobedo. Katsidis looked much more composed than in his previous fights, keeping his hands high and controlling his aggression. Escobedo for his part took all of Katsidis’ hard shots and came back with his own combinations. Escobedo landed plenty of good combinations but he did not have the power to keep Katsidis off of him. After twelve hard rounds, the scores were announced: 115-113 and 118-110 for Katsidis. Escobedo received one card with the result 116-112. This was a very surprising result because although the fight was competitive, Escobedo failed to win many rounds in most peoples’ eyes. Katsidis is now the mandatory challenger for Juan Manuel Marquez. Escobedo can hold his head high, knowing that he went the distance and still looked impressive in a loss.
The co-main event featured Rocky Juarez (28-5-1, 20 KO’s) vs Chris John (43-0-1, 22 KO’s) for John’s WBA Featherweight Championship. The fight was a rematch of their first fight that took place in February and resulted in a draw. A lot of fans were wondering if Juarez would be able to make adjustments in this fight and beat John. This was not the case. As in the last fight, Chris John used his jab and movement to outbox a plodding Juarez. Juarez was not every active and took a lot of shots coming in. He was effective in closing John’s left eye but never took advantage by throwing right hands. I felt the commentators of HBO were very unprofessional while calling the fight. Instead of commenting on the fight, they blatantly decided that they would talk about the main event instead. This seemed to distract the viewers and create an “anti-climatic” atmosphere leading into the main event. The crowd in the theater seemed to lose interest in a fairly good fight. In the last twenty seconds of the last round, Juarez rocked John with a big left hook and almost knocked him down, but John was saved by the bell. For those twenty seconds, the theater went wild. We were finally brought back into reality for the main event. The scores for the fight were 114-113, 119-109, 117-111, all for John. Juarez looked disappointed, probably knowing that his career at the top level is probably over; he will most likely not get another title shot (this was his sixth attempt).
The buzz in the theater got louder and cheers began to erupt as Michael Buffer began the “pre-fight pageantries” for the main event. First the national anthems were sung and the theater quieted down in respect. After the US national was played, everyone went wild with excitement. The ring entrances brought more cheers and the theater began to buzz. When the first bell rang, everyone got tense. Every time either fighter landed a punch, there were ooohs and ahhs. Towards the end of the second round, Mayweather scored a knockdown on Marquez using his left hook. The crowd in the theater went crazy with people jumping out of their seats, screaming. Marquez made it out of the round however, and everyone settled down again. After that, the crowd only cheered on Mayweather who hails from our state of Michigan. Every time he landed a punch, cheers would break out among the crowd. Mayweather cruised for the rest of the fight, showing excellent defensive and counter-punching skills. Marquez was able to land a few punches here and there but he did not have the power to trouble the slick Mayweather, who rolled off most of his punches. Mayweather ended up winning a decision: 118-109, 120-107, 119-108. Mayweather moves to 40-0, 25 KO’s while Marquez falls to 50-5-1, 37 KO’s.
A funny thing happened in our theater. At the end of the eleventh round, our feed dropped. The crowd in the theater went wild; they booed, pounded on their seats and chanted “bullsh*t” as well as “refund!” The theater staff was able to get the fight back up but not until there was only five seconds left in the twelfth round. While the end of the fight was pretty much a foregone conclusion at that point, had Mayweather knocked out Marquez or vice versa, I think everyone would have been very angry. We watched the drama of the post-fight interviews – Floyd got into a fight with Max Kellerman and Shane Mosley. It caused quite a bit of chaos but made for great television. Juan Manuel Marquez got a chance to do his interview, but he did it with Jim Lampley and a cameraman served as the interpreter. Then everyone filed out of the theater, where the staff gave everyone a full refund! What a drama filled fight from start to finish!
Overall I thought the card was very solid. It featured an action-packed undercard and even though the main event was one-sided, it was still a good fight. My brother, a UFC fan, enjoyed the fights although he felt that the main event was too much of a mismatch and should not have been marketed as a mega-fight. Watching the fight in a theater was very fun experience. I got to chat with other boxing fans as we watched the fights and it was fun to cheer and boo along with everyone else. The screen was very big so it did give you a view that made it feel like you were ringside. Despite the feed dropping (NCM Fathom misallocated the time for the show), I think the movie theater viewing was very good. It might be a good idea to broadcast more fights in theaters. As we headed out into the night, I could not help thinking, “I’m lucky to be a fan of such a great sport…”
By MAZEN SARWAR
