Fight Night

Last weekend we went to Goeteborg to see Asa from Gleason's fight in the Sweden's first pro boxing bout since 1969. According to Asa they had banned pro boxing since it didn't fit their social democratic sense of self and their sense of decency, which is best expressed by the swedish word logum, which means something like all good, 'cause more would be too much, less would be too little.

Blackmore and Grant had joined Asa and hanging witht the three of them made us realize how much we miss being home in Brooklyn. It was a pretty festive night at the Skandinavium, a stadium roughly the size of Madison Square Garden. The Swedes are pretty good fighters, tight and crisp. Asa dominated her opponent Tiffany Carter, who was a bit overwhelmed by the Swedish Sensation, who not only had the audience on her side, but also a distinct advantage having almost double the reach, which enabled her to escape most of Carter's potentially devastating powershots.

Asa was the headliner. In Brooklyn we knew, but never gauged the level of Asa's stardom. It was fun to be the entourage afterwards though, partying at the Elite Park Hotel until five in the morning. With fellow Brooklynites at her side we were a pretty steadfast posse, we enjoyed healthy helpings of Chamapaign. We went til the morning, although not exactly Led Zeppelin style. It was pretty amazing though to witness most streetside Swede's willingness to drink themselves into an absolute stupor. Hotel security seemed quite relaxed about groping, stumbling dudes making passes at anything female with heavily slurred speech. Asa said it's actually socially acceptable to lose control, since most of Swedish society is so overly controller when sober.

At The Circus

Watched the Valuev-McCline fight on TV last night. Gotta admit that boxing on TV's much more prominent over here. Three networks compete for market share right now, so they'll show even mediocre fights on Saturday late prime. Valuev fought some cannon fodder named Jameel McCline who seems to have an exclusive subscription to bad news, so by round three that guy's kneecap snapped out of it's socket, since it was obviously too much to have 120 Kilograms of meat bouncing on some gristle for an extended period of time.

Somehow Valuev fights always feel like tha last gasp of heavyweight boxing as big business. Next exit mud wrestling with dwarfs? Well, next weekend we're off to Göteborg to see some real pro fight. Asa Sandell will be featured in the historical first pro bout on Swedish ground since professional boxing was banned there in 1970. It's gonna be a riot of a weekend. Asa's trainer Blackmore's one of the greatest partiers in the Western hemisphere (he sure helped to give us a fun send-off from Brooklyn), plus Fred's trainer Grant Seligson will be there cornerman. Can't wait..... P.S.: On a note of pure inside jokerism - anybody ever notice the distinct similarities between Valujev and German journo scammer Tom Kummer? Didn't Spy magazine invent this 'seperated at birth' column in the 80s?