K.O.W. - "Hurry home early..."

"...hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's
fighting Bobby Chacon..."

I've come out on this site many times as an opponent of the nostalgic attitude, and yet I'd be lying to you if I didn't admit that this past weekend's big fight filled me with nostalgia. I'd be hard-pressed to say what it was exactly, other than a yearning for a time when it didn't take so much exhaustive effort to make boxing meaningful in the public eye, when it was understood as part of our sporting and cultural fabric and not just a circus sideshow that required many many millions and the presence of multi-millionaires, both in the ring and ringside, to make a single fight seem like something worth talking about.

So for today's No Mas Knockout of the Week, I chose Boom Boom Mancini's dismantling of Bobby Chacon from 1984, a bout that speaks to my nostalgia greatly, both because I was a big fan of each of these fighters, and because it figures in the chorus of Warren Zevon's classic rocker, "Boom Boom Mancini." That song, with it's refrain of "Hurry home early, hurry on home..." somehow captures this nostalgia of mine that I can't quite put into words otherwise. It was just easier to be a fight fan back then, it made more sense. You didn't feel like you were doing anything crazy or exhibiting fringe behavior. It was as natural as rooting for your baseball team or playing wiffleball or tackle football in the mud, just one of things you did if you were a red-blooded American male with more combative energy that you knew what to do with. For the life of me I can't begin to explain why that's not the case anymore. I know everyone wants to say that it's the fault of the sport itself, but I'm not buying it. As far as I can see, we're the ones who have changed. For better or worse then I suppose is really the question, and I imagine you can wager a guess as to where I stand on that one.