The Wonderful World of the Boxing Weigh-Ins
One of the best things about boxing matches, besides the fighters beating each other to a bloody pulp, has to be the weigh-in ceremony. Two human beings with no previous animosity towards each other, have to be weighed-in, made sure they are in the correct weight division and face each other like enemies. The best time of the weigh-in must be when both fighters are locked in a death stare inches away from each other’s noses and are throwing taunts back and forth. Throw a Don King character into the mix with his shock of white hair and energetic personality and the stage is set for a show down.
All this must be for the benefit of the audience and journalists present at the scene of the weigh-in. People love a good competition and it probably wouldn’t work if both boxers were smiling at each other and asking about their respective families and discussing trouble areas that the other boxer would be nice enough to leave alone. No that never happens. It’s usually each boxer saying things like you are going to die, and I’m going to make you eat the ring and in some cases like Mike Tyson saying things like I’m going to eat your ear, yum tasty. A recent fight between Amir Khan and Paulie Malignaggi had one of the most heated weigh-ins of recent time. Both boxers exchanged heated words which led to, “a tense weigh-in descend into chaos as the two camps jostled on stage, resulting in Malignaggi falling through a promotional hoarding,” (BBC). No boxer got hurt in the process but this incident just shows that the boxing weigh-in is sometimes almost as exciting as the actual fight.
The boxing world being governed by weight classes has strict rules regarding the weight of boxers. That is the point of weigh-ins, as boxers face each other because of the money involved and in the spirit of fairness the weigh-ins are very important. Yet a lot of boxers try to bend the system and the rules by going on extreme binge diets before weigh-ins with the likes of no solid foods three days before the weigh-in or heavy exercise right before it. They apply these techniques in order to drop a weight class and then eat like crazy after the weigh-in and right before the fight in order to get back to their preferred weight. This technique not practised by all boxers but by some doesn’t seem right. This method lets one boxer get the upper hand by being heavier than the other boxer who is the correct weight for that division. It may not matter at the end of the day with fitness levels and skill coming into play but still it does become a slight advantage for one boxer.
The fact that is interesting about the weigh-ins is the amount of show boating that takes place. Both boxers are flexing their muscles and putting on their most menacing looks to try and scare their opponent and get a mental edge before the fight. I don’t know that boxers could be so easily intimidated; after all they get into a ring with another person who wants to rip their head off so I’m guessing they don’t scare very easily. The whole demonstration is usually just for the benefit of the crowd in order to get the excitement levels up and so as to assure a great turnout when the fight actually commences and it seems very likely that both boxers are told to ham it up and play to the crowd. Now all that remains to be seen is to have a boxing weigh-in where both boxers smile at each other and are nice to each other and exchange pleasantries before going their separate ways. Somehow that scenario doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon.
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