sports

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Boxing night in El Marañon
Panamanians in Major League Baseball

Panama's American football championship

Joel Cerrud, who has been scarred and bloodied in the ring

on various occasions, has his face anointed with vaseline.

On this night he took few blows and won a knockout victory.

Cerrud's a good and experienced fighter with many more

wins than losses, but most likely he has too many losses to

get a coveted chance to fight for a world championship belt

Boxing night in El Marañon

photos and captions by Eric Jackson

         The action was faster than an old Olympus or a cheap Kodak could freeze

Panama's in the midst of one of its boxing Golden Ages,

but this was a lower level of the professional sport at the

small Gimnasio Club de Leones near Plaza Cinco de

Mayo, with pugilists on their way up or their way down

entertaining  a group of dedicated boxing fans who could

get ringside seats for $5 or sit in the bleachers for $3

After putting on a most interesting show of boxing technique against a shorter

but more muscular and and aggressive foe, he was knocked silly at the end

of one round but saved by the bell. However, he was unable to come out of

his corner for the next round and thus lost the bout by technical knockout

There are ever more women in professional boxing and

others working out in boxing gyms just to keep fit, and

there's also a growing corps of female boxing officials

"I want to see a good, clean, professional fight...."

Canadians usually like their fisticuffs on ice, so this was his first experience

attending live boxing. Fight promoters don't do very well at reaching out

to publicize boxing events among expatriates, but with a little effort they'd

find more fans and bolster attendance at all levels of Panamanian boxing

And down he went...