I ran across a title fight while channel surfing this weekend: Arthur”King Arthur” Abraham defending the IBF middleweight belt against RaulMarquez. Talk about globalization. Abraham’s an Armenian-bornnaturalized German citizen and entered the ring to a live band playingbad German heavy metal. Marquez is a Mexican-born naturalized Americancitizen (he represented the U.S. in the 1992 Olympics) and entered thering to a mariachi soundtrack. But to show that globalization doesn’tnecessarily mean homogenization, the German and American nationalanthems were played by a string quartet. (First time I’ve heard thedescending bass line accompanying the last verse of the Star SpangledBanner on a cello.)
After that, the fight was prettyanti-climactic. Abraham methodically but unspectacularly wore downMarquez, who pulled a Roberto Duran “No mas” and just didn’t come outfor the eighth. But in the prefight warmup, they showed this highlight from Abraham’s KO of Khoren Gevorin August 2007: three straight lefts that start at 2:27 and set up afourth one that sends Gevor to the canvas about as quickly as I’ve everseen a fighter drop. It’s worth watching the whole round just to seethat Gevor was still looking pretty strong up until about the 2:26mark. I don’t know how you say “Lights out” in German, but I imaginethat’s what the announcer’s last word means.