Thursday Night at the Fights

So, after four weeks of wild entertainment at Kingston’s best kept secret, Thursday Night at the Fights, those who’ve been following the scores know that reigning champion Leo has been hard pressed to find a challenger. After he punched the chicken foot soup out of his last opponent a few weeks ago it appeared for a while that nobody seemed up to the task…until last night.

Enter Kong. A dangerous looking character with blood in his eyes, arriving by SUV and quickly escorted into the square by his ‘trainer’ at approximately 12:15 am.

The usual spectators suddenly found themselves scrambling for a better view as hundreds more caught word of the challenge and hurriedly made their way to ringside. Although Thursday Night at the Fights is never poorly attended, this was by far the largest turnout. People climbed higher up into trees and onto roofs as Leo’s crew started to make their way (with Vegas-like fanfare) through the thick crowd via the empty land to the back.

Wads of money appeared as the contenders’ respective camps haggled over the prize money, which had now reached a purse of J$40,000.

At 1 am, the smaller children were cleared back from the ropes. Extra people were removed from the ring leaving only two referees (one to handle the fighters and one to control the crowd).

After some grimacing and a little more posturing, it was time.

All things considered, they should really have a bell by now. But they don’t, so someone grabbed the mic and said: ‘Ding!’

Not surprisingly, the fight is quick and brutal. Kong, clearly the early aggressor is punished for his confidence and gets consistently pummelled by the slightly larger champion who ruthlessly smashes his face for three intense rounds before Kong collapses in his corner, forfeiting the victory before heading to the hospital, probably for some Tylenol 4s.

With this declaration of defeat, the crowd erupts with a roar as Leo throws his gloves into the air and his fans clamber into the ring, begging to be photographed with him.

Who needs HBO?

SEE the VIDEO HERE: [link]