Battles at Brooks

In the above photo Shifty the referee presides over one of the many matches that took place at Brooks Park on Wednesday night.

I had stayed home all day.  On Tuesday, I was tired, sore, and worn out, but I went to work anyway and pushed through it.  But Wednesday morning, all systems were down.  I believe I had picked up part of a virus that Pastor Roger had contended with the other week.  I rested all day, then pulled myself up to get to the boxing show at Brooks Park. 

Andre and Reygie were already there when I arrived.  Reygie kept saying he was nervous.  "Nervous about what?" I asked.  I remembered how Reygie had taken out the opponent he faced last year at the same field house.  Thinking he would do that again, I assured Reygie that he had nothing to be worried about.  A bunch of his friends came in, and they were looking forward to seeing him fight.

Unfortunately, Andre didn't get a match.  It seems there was a guy he could have been matched up with, but the general opinion was that Andre was too big for the guy to take on.  "That's why sometimes I don't like coming out to these shows because I end up being disappointed," Andre said.  I had seen Big Chris on the premises, but I guess he wasn't looking to fight that evening. 

The first fight involved a couple of boys, one from Brooks Park and the other from Scottsdale Park, which is way out on the south side.  The kid from Brooks took some hard hits to the face, and I believe the ref gave him a standing eight count about three times.  The boxer from Scottsdale won.  In fact, Scottsdale won a few more matches against Brooks Park fighters. 

There was one female match between two girls who looked no older than fifteen years of age.  The girl named Frankie had no problem fighting on the inside.  Each time she was close up on the other boxer, Frankie would throw short but crisp punches to the head and body.  Frankie was declared the winner.  I congratulated her afterwards, and wished I could fight that well on the inside.

Another fight between two guys was stopped when one guy's nose began gushing blood after taking a direct hit.  His corner people tried to stop the flow, but couldn't get it to slow down enough so the guy could continue.  I saw the paramedics (who are always on hand at every boxing show) check him out afterwards.

I didn't count the number of matches before it was Reygie's turn, but seven to eight fights had to have taken place before that.  The boxing show started about fifteen minutes late because the coaches and officials took awhile to set up all the matches.  In the above photo, Reygie listens to instructions from Yale, who was the referee for the bout.  Alan didn't see me right away when he got to the field house, so he asked Andre to help him in the corner with Reygie.  Alan apologized, but I waved him off.  "It's okay.  Everybody needs to get the experience of working the corners," I told him.  I positioned myself near the ring with my camera.  The video wouldn't print here, but I do have it in another post.