The other day my wife asked me if the Buckeyes had won the spring game.  I assured her that they had.

Then yesterday she asked why one of my friends had left early Friday before the fight started, and I said because he didn’t want to watch women fighting.

“Women”?  (Look of puzzlement).  “Women fighting? They were punching each other?” 

And I explained about women’s boxing, that while it is not super popular, it is gaining. And that this was the second time a women’s fight was the main attraction on a televised event.

I explained about Claressa Shields and her Olympic victories, and her dominant wins early in her career, and how Christina Hammer was undefeated and a champion for many years.  I told her about Christy Martin and Laila Ali and how twice before women’s boxing started to become a thing, but then faded once again into obscurity.

I stopped short of trying to explain this:

“But don’t their hands hurt? Do they stop and say, “Ow”?  And I said no, that they box, just like the guys. I may have mentioned that the rounds are only two minutes instead of three, and this, a title fight, was only ten rounds – so it’s not exactly like the men fighting.

And I told her that I understand my friend’s reluctance to watch – that I used to feel the same way.  It was Shields that changed my mind – back when she was seventeen and women’s boxing was in the Olympics for the first time. I watched – with trepidation – and liked it.  Liked her more like.

Don explained it best – he said that when he sees a guy get hit hard enough to knock him down, his mind says “Ooh, that was a good one!”  But when he sees a lady get hit like that he thinks “Oh no! Not so hard! Is she okay?”

I get it.

There has been a lot of talk (and some folks have put a lot of money into it) about how Shields is going to make (a lot of money) women’s boxing more popular – maybe even pay-per-view popular.  We’ll see. I kinda feel like they already had the big one in Hammer. Who are they going to get to fight Shields that’s going to draw a crowd now? There is talk of her going down a weight class to fight the unified welterweight champ, but we’ll see.

Those that tuned in for the undercard saw two heavyweight bouts of great dullness.  The first one got stopped and declared a “no decision” in the first round. The second featured a pair of pachyderms, lumbering and leaning and occasionally just stopping to chat with some of the fans and then lumbering some more.  It put me in mind of this:

Meanwhile the Jackets continue to amaze.  I won’t lie; I’m not a Bluejackets fan. I’m totally a fair weather fan, having caught the bug once the playoffs started and they started beating the pants off those Nancy boys from Florida. So I have no insightful or comical things to say about them, but  I’ll be watching for that sweep that tomorrow.

Then Tiger won the Masters. 

I thought he was done.  I thought Jack’s record was safe.  Now if he can stay healthy, who knows?

Anyhow the next big fight is a month away.  Deontay Wilder and Dominic Breazeale.

May 18^th.  Come on down.