Boxing

As a man seated next to me said on one of my first nights at the fights, “What else is there to do in Philadelphia on Thursday night? Philly was known as a fight town. There were weekly Thursday Night Fights at the Legendary Blue Horizon. Neighborhood residents walked over, and folks from New Jersey arrived on chartered buses. The Blue Horizon was small. The floors creaked, the crowds cheered, booed and drank beer first from cans, and later from paper cups when cans began landing in the ring. I sat ringside wearing a dark T-shirt so the blood and sweat that flew off the fighters would not show on me. Philadelphia also had many gyms devoted to training amateur and professional boxers. I spent time at Champs, and Joe Frazier’s and several others. On cold nights the smell of the kerosene heaters mixed with the sweat and on hot nights the smells just got worse. The trainers and boxers were as kind and helpful to me as they were to one another.