Fight Night

For Saturday night viewing (while the mrs. was working) I decided to watch the Joel Calzaghe-Mikkel Kessler fight on HBO. I've seen Calzaghe fight a few times and been impressed. I had never seen Kessler fight. During the pre-fight buildup they played clips of previous fights, and the fact that both of these guys had nearly 90 fights combined without a loss made for a megafight. I was definitely looking forward to this one.

In the very first round I turn to the wife and say "You know Kessler holds his left hand very low, I can see Calzaghe pounding away at that eye all night". The fight turned out to be awesome. Lots of back and forth action. Kind of the anti-Dela Hoya/Mayweather. Here you had two fighters willing to mix it up. Kessler hit Calzaghe with some bombs that he just simply walked through. Calzaghe put on a show. Easily controlling the fight. I scored it 9-3. Most judges had the same. In the 10th round, the announce team (which was surprisingly sharp) started to notice that Kessler's left eye was nearly swelled shut... something I had said would happen at the very start of the fight. My wife shouts out to me from the office and says "Hey didn't you say that would happen"... yeah, i did... it got me thinking about why I was able to make that prediction... it got me missing my Dad.

My Dad was a hugge boxing fan. I remember constantly being exposed to boxing at an early age, and loving it. My Dad never really missed an opportunity to watch boxing, he loved it. He knew the sport more than most. In fact, had I never watched boxing with my Dad, I probably would never have been able to make a proclamation like I did at the start of the Calzaghe/Kessler fight. I'm sure I watch and love boxing because it makes me feel closer to my Dad... in some ways it helps me miss him less, because I can just imagine him right there with me watching the fight as he bobs and weaves and barks out directions to the boxers or just makes observations in spanish. It would have been fight he loved.