Let me start by eating some crow. I said that Golden Boy would be lucky to get 4,000 people to the fight on Saturday. Given that neither the Peterson brothers nor Seth Mitchell had fought much in the area and the fights were being held at the Convention Center (an all-floor-level trade show venue that might be the worst place for spectators to actually see the fight), I believed that D.C. wouldn?t look so good and the wait for another big fight would be considerable.
I also knew without a doubt that Khan?s Army would dramatically outnumber the supporters of Lamont Peterson. It would hardly be a hometown fight for the latter.
By last count, I was wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.
Friday, December 2
?Oh, man, Alec, you just missed it. Seth just broke the hell out of a guy?s nose.? That was Sharif Salim?s greeting to me as I walked into the Dream Team Gym in Clinton, MD to get a few more minutes of tape for a Seth Mitchell video. Sharif?s words told me half the story. The blood soaking into the ring canvas and still fresh on the gym floor told me the rest.
Joseph Rabotte, heavyweight, 11-19-1 with 3 KOs, ranked 182 out of 1093 heavyweight boxers in the world by BoxRec.com, stood there holding a bag of ice and a blood-soaked rag to his face. Such is the life of the modern-day, ?Have gloves will travel? sparring partner and heavyweight opponent. As Seth was interviewed by a local cable TV show, I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Rabotte. Great sense of humor and a sharp wit, it would be real hard not to like this guy. Whether willing to step into the ring against any up-and-comer or serving as sparring partner to a great boxers, it?s guys like Joseph Rabotte, not the big-money promoters and million-dollar fighters, that make the boxing world go ?round.
Salim had wanted to take him to the hospital but it was the final day of sparring and he was ready to go to the airport and head home. After all, what?s the use of sitting in an emergency room for hours to be told your nose was broken, then given a $1,500 piece of nice white tape to go over it?
Sharif Salim was in the fight game in D.C. well before my still brief tenure as a writer began. An educator, Salim got out because the business of boxing is just not a comfortable place for an honest man. It was Seth Mitchell that brought him back. In some way, it may be foretelling in that Seth Mitchell may be the man that brings the average American sports fan back to boxing as well.
Seth looked as good as I?ve ever seen him, a lean 240 pounds and ready for his HBO coming-out party. Seth gave me a few minutes and I got the final bit of tape needed for the video. Always the gentleman, Seth took another minute to say hi to my neighbor?s kids, Brianna and T.J. on tape.
I began to realize how wrong I was when there were at least a thousand people waiting for the doors to open to the show floor well before the first bout, with thousands more pouring into the Convention Center. This was going to be one hell of a night but as the saying goes, I didn?t know the half of it. From that moment, until after the main event, walking with referee Joe Cooper as he was leaving the hall and I was headed to the post-fight presser, it was a night I would have never imagined.
Sunday, December 4
Lois, my wife, had a friend at work that needed six tickets, so I found out who in the local boxing community was selling because I would like someone I know to make the commission on the sale rather than Ticketmaster. So we headed out to Crystal City, a small commercial area next to the Pentagon and gave our friend $912 for six, $150 tickets. It is better to let him get the kickback rather than Ticketmaster, right?
The $912 was in cash. As ?The Old Man? says on ?Pawn Stars,? ?That?s hundred-dollar bills.?
Just before 6:00 PM on Saturday, my wife and I arrived at the Convention Center and head to the press room. Damn, they had some decent food in there but since I had just enjoyed a couple pints of Amber Ale and appetizers at the Capital City Brewing Co., I wasn?t hungry.
In the press room, Lem Satterfield, now with RingTV.com, was the first person I saw. I didn?t tell him that he was the one really responsible for my prediction of a Lamont Peterson upset by decision.
It was his daughter, Ada, then 16, who sang the National Anthem before the Amir Khan-Paul Malignaggi fight in the Theater at the Garden in May 2010. To say she is a talented and beautiful young lady would be an understatement. There with Lem?s wife, she was just a few hours away from again singing the National Anthem before an Amir Khan fight.
