By Marc Livitz: Anticipation can bring expectation, which in turn can ultimately sway our opinions. Many of us have neither sufficient fingers nor toes to count how many times we’ve paid a fee or blocked out an evening for an eagerly awaited bout only to have a pugilistic stink bomb hurled at us. In the meantime, many within the mainstream sports media cherry pick what’s right and what’s wrong with the current state of affairs in boxing and perhaps only Floyd Mayweather, Jr. stands alone as the single attraction who doesn’t exactly get the pulses racing of fans yet still cashes in at the box office.
Sometimes, the undercard steals the show and in other instances our indifference towards it stops us from caring at all. Tomorrow night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, a different if not new era (or sideshow) of boxing will take place.
If some of us are outright tired of the lack of action of traditional boxing, then perhaps “BKB, known as Big Knockout Boxing” can satiate our collective fancy. The same acronym which previously stood for “Bare Knuckle Boxing” was recently altered and will now display its initial event in nowhere else but Sin City. Here’s a few of the basics: 1.) a pit style competition space, which is seventeen feet in diameter. There are no corners and no ropes. 2.) rounds consisting of two minutes apiece. The two fighters in the night’s main event are pure brawlers. Brian “The Warrior” Vera (23-8, 14 KO’s) of Austin, TX and Gabe “King” Rosado (21-8, 13 KO’s) of Philadelphia are each coming off unanimous decision defeats, yet their style of combat is all heart. The organizers of the event may have selected as close as possible the two best choices for such an outing.
Vera takes hellacious shots and just smiles back at his opponents, while many of Rosado’s fights are akin to an entertaining blood and guts (well, mostly blood) ruffian. The overall success of tomorrow night’s display in Vegas is still up in the air. The developers of the event are eager to stress that the size of the “pit” will prohibit clinches and useless dancing. Hogwash. Since when do fighters need hardly more than a cookie jar to hug and clinch? Although we’re being promised more and more knockouts, BKB must still be viewed as a work in progress and one that is likely trying to bridge the gap between boxing and mixed martial arts. Furthermore, it may not be one which attracts the biggest names in boxing. The small configuration of the arena in Vegas may attest to the previous opinions.
If the money is right, then more may one day come. The fighters’ stamina and skill will most certainly be tested and it’s difficult to say whether the validity of the night is official or unofficial. In this writer’s view, once you lace up gloves then you’ve obtained and cemented your status. Seeing as how no major networks have chosen to broadcast the bouts, pay per view ($29.99) is the bare option. Are some of us so dissatisfied with boxing that the last remaining strategy is a seventeen (in diameter) foot pit? Is it a case of unfulfilled bloodlust or the death of the sweet science? Let’s give it a chance. If you want blood – you got it. If you don’t – too bad because you’ve bought it.
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