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The Big Fight

“Back in the day …” as we modern Rusters are wont to say – albeit that the period we’re referencing is so long ago now that even through our rose-tinted spectacles we virtually recall it in black and white – there used to be a London-based boxing magazine that ran a series on Great Fights I Have Slept Through.

Last night it came directly to mind as I made my plans to listen to the Anthony Joshua versus the Bulgarian 39 year old Kubrat Pulev world heavyweight title fight at Wembley.

Its “ring walk”, scheduled at some point after 10.00pm, was way past my habitual bedtime so I took an ancient transistor radio to bed with me and – not without difficulty, it has to be said – arranged to tune into 909 Medium Wave and point the aerial via trial and error towards the best “receiving” direction of the compass.

Even so the sound was wafting periodically from good quality to “underwater” and/or from “outer space”, bringing back memories of listening to Muhammad Ali’s first stint as world champion in the mid-1960s or even secretive sessions spent listening to Radio Luxembourgh under the bedclothes at my boarding prep school in Seaford, Sussex.

Inevitably, I nodded off – only to awake midway through Round 3 as Joshua mounted a devastating attack at close to 11.00pm, which meant logically that the “ring walk” cannot have taken place until at least 10.45pm.

I then drifted off into the land of Nod again until the eighth round, during which it seemed Pulev was holding his own if not getting back into the action with positive intent.

Half-awake I then dozed off … only to re-emerge again with excellent BBC commentator Mike Costello screaming the last knockings as Joshua knocked the challenger clean out in the 9th.

Add this contest to the list, Pedro …

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About James Westacott

James Westacott, a former City investment banker, acquired his love of the Noble Art as a schoolboy in the 1970s. For many years he attended boxing events in and around London and more recently became a subscriber to the Box Nation satellite/cable channel. His all-time favourite boxer is Carlos Monzon. More Posts