What's it like to go to the Boxing Hall of Fame induction weekend?

The blogbaba has been to the Boxing hall of Fame, and it was like going to church. I hold the place in awe. It is small by modern standards, but you can feel the overwhelming aura of tradition just permeating the place, it has an almost supernatural feel, as if the spirits of all the great champions haunt it. I get goose bumps just thinking about it. If you are a boxing fanatic, as I am, going there alone, on and ordinary day with out all the fanfare and hoopla of induction week is almost the equivalent of a pilgrimage. It incites an emotional intensity in those of us who lived boxing that one rarely encounters in life. The Vietnam war memorial brought that same tugging feeling in my diaphragm as I approached the "Wall" that my first visit to the Boxing Hall of Fame brought. It was that intense, the emotion was almost overwhelming.

My advice to you is to do both. A Trip during the off season, when you can have the place relatively to your self, is something you can do in a couple hours, it's not even a whole day thing, but it is priceless.

The induction weekend is for meeting former champs and the celebrity hoopla attached to the event, and it is equally rewarding.

Honestly, you'll be bored out of your mind. I am a huge boxing fan and even I was bored silly. The actual Hall of Fame is nothing more than 150 or so plasters of people's fists which is about as exciting to view as watching paint dry. Oh yeah, they have 3-4 13 inch TVs there to watch old fights while standing up.

The actual induction is another snoozefest. After all, people who love boxing like action -- not sitting in their folding metal chairs for three hours trying to decipher what a non-english speaking punch-drunk ex-fighter is actually saying.

You also get to go to the local high school gym for the 'Expo' which is a bunch of losers selling old fight posters and magazines for three times the price you would pay on ebay.

None of this stuff is worth paying for, unless your hubby is dying to get someone's autograph or a photo with an overweight, past-their-prime version of what somebody used to be.

Your money would be better spent going to the annual Teddy Atlas Dinner-Fundraiser. You get a great meal, get to meet fifty or so celebrities and boxers (former and current champs), and the money goes to a great charity.

If your hubby still insists on going, at least make him pay for a room at the Turning Stone Casino, ten miles east of Canastota, so you can enjoy a spa treatment and try to win back some of your money at the great poker tables there. Trust me, there's no nice hotels in Canastota.

Good luck and godspeed!

Flif ~

Blogbaba and Nu Yawker are both correct in their assessments of induction weekend, Blogbaba more so than Nu Yawker. It is truly amazing to see fighters that one has seen on T.V or has followed through different media outlets. I've been to many of the Induction weekends and have been there on my own just doing my own thing as a matter of fact I bid on a Ali/ Liston lithograph that now hangs in my office back home.

If a friend of mine were to ask me "Should I go to the Hall of Fame for induction weekend or sometime by myself?" I'd honestly would have to tell him/ her "By yourself." Sure there's the general overall atmosphere of being around all of the hoopla but there's a downside to it also, one that broke my heart each and every time I was there and that is seeing and talking to fighters that are suffering from the beginning stages of Pugilistic Dementia. The slurred speech and listening to a fighter that you have fond memories of trying to remember a thought, searching a mind that has been damaged from countless punches is indeed sobering to write the least.

I would much rather remember these men for the great memories of wars, artistry and ring generalship that I remember than the latter.

Thanks for the question Flif.

It's Awesome. All the Living ledgends usually attend. I met Hagler, Hearns Duran,Basillio and so many more. If he is a boxing fan he will love it. The hall is really small but the fighters make it worth going. Have fun!!!!