Does anyone besides me miss the old closed circuit fight days? PPV has advantages to be sure. You can watch the fight right in your own home and invite friends over for a party and so on. That is all fine, but I miss the old days when you went out to see a big fight at a local theater or venue on a BIG screen. You got dressed up and made a real EVENT out of it.
And sometimes the action in the audience was just as good if not better than the action on the screen. I remember during the Leonrad-Duran I a group of Panamanians sitting right behind me were ready to get into it with
a bunch of very vocal Leonard fans who were sitting two rows in front of me.
On site posters and programes from closed circuit fights are also worth good money now days.
Yeah, those were fun. For Duran-Leonard I, emotions ran high. I saw it at the then-new Rosemont Horizon, still smelling of fresh paint and sap in the ceiling's wood beams. Paid $25, a big deal then. The picture was so murky, you couldn't tell who was who because they were both wearing white trunks. The crowd was so loud and the audio so crappy, forget about hearing any blow-by-blow. I was surprised that the crowd sounded about 60-40 pro-Duran, or maybe his fans were just louder. And I remember the oddity when the decision was read. Duran spoke only Spanish, Leonard only English and the scores were read in French (in Montreal). My two years of High School French paid off because I was the first in my section to realize Duran had won.
Quite a night. PPV is convenient, but I miss the buzz of a live event.
