Boxing

Last Saturday (aka January 19) I went to my first and probably my only boxing fight. It was the Caleb “Golden” Truax vs. Matt “The Predator” Vanda fight for the Minnesota Middleweight Championship. Caleb is the nephew of some family friends, so for the last few years I had been looking for a fight to attend. I was hoping for a fight at a casino (so I could go play the slots if I got bored), but this one at the Minneapolis Convention Center came up. So I went along with the Truaxs arriving a little before 6pm and we did not leave until after 11:30pm (then we were tapped in the parking lot forever). There were 6 other bouts before Caleb went on, they started late, and there were two weird intermissions (kickboxing and rappers), so it was a long time before the main event (aka Caleb) started at 10:30ish. While the early fights were really slow and dull, it was fun meeting various Truax relatives (some I had met before and others I had only heard about). It was also interesting to see how slow boxing is in real life in comparison to what you see in the movies. I have been to the Convention Center for Star Trek and SciFi conventions, so this crowd was a bit interesting and a million light-years away from that crowd. While people watching during the long night (and there often seemed to be more police officers than attendees), I noticed various biker gang members, women doing drugs in the bathroom, others that looked like prostitutes – but probably were not, and a wide cross-section of the population (from little kids to immigrants); basically a great people watching experience. The bad part of the evening was the really cold weather and the crappy food available for sale. However, overall it was a fun event to go and it was great to see Caleb win!