By Scott Buckner
When it comes to boxing, I can take it or leave it. Not because it’s violent and has an underbelly with all sorts of unsavory characters, but because for me, it’s not as exciting as, say, Ultimate Fighting. But last night’s The Best Damn Sports Show Period turned into the best damn boxing show period with a 10-round women’s bout between Holly Holm and the extremely scary-looking Ann Marie Saccurato.
Before last night, the only exposure I’d had to women’s boxing was seeing Muhammad Ali’s professional-boxer daughter Laila once and thinking she was pretty damn sharp. I came in halfway through the Holm-Saccurato bout, and these two were brutal – but not in that sort of aimless, drunken brawling way you normally see during boxing exhibitions featuring washed-up child stars. No, these two knew how to administer a professional Grade A ass-kicking, and the only thing missing was the slaughterhouse freezer with sides of beef hanging from huge hooks and Saccurato glaring at the camera and snarling, “I predict . . . pain.”
To this casual boxing bystander, it was a lot more interesting than men’s boxing – and not because it’s still novelty to see women in the ring and, let’s face it, that’s still enough to capture a man’s attention for at least a few minutes. No, it was more interesting than men’s boxing because of the quality of the fight. There was none of the time-wasting stuff that makes men’s boxing sorta dreary – especially toward the end-rounds when both guys have punched themselves out and are basically just holding each other up out of exhaustion. There was no clinching, no rope-a-doping, no sitting there stuck in a corner covering your face with your gloves buying time until the bell rings. Instead, every two-minute round was nonstop, balls-out, dukes-flying pummeling from bell to bell.
Holm took the bout by unanimous decision, which didn’t surprise me. She was my favorite because she kicked more ass, of course, but also because she had the better trunks (a pair of melon-colored shorty-shorts compared to Saccurato’s black knee-length manly-man trunks that looked more fashionable on Sonny Liston). And I figure Holm was up on points before the opening round just for getting into the same ring with Saccurato without being scared out of her skin.
Screw hockey. I’ve found a new fight night to like.
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Scott Buckner can’t watch TV every night, as much as we’ve tried to get him to. If you’d like to join the team and contribute to this feature, drop us a note. And as always, be sure to catch up on the What I Watched Last Night archive. It’s better than, um, watching TV.
Posted on April 21, 2007