The Hopkins-Trinidad fight was on TV that night. Trinidad lost. My first cognizance of this occurred when I heard a lot of whooping and hollering emanating from all over. Then I remembered a couple posts about the fight on this board, regarding TJ anyway. Well, in Nogie’s little slice of “la zona”, pretty much every eyeball was glued to a TV set there, too. In fact, it was so bad that some of the bars couldn’t keep enough chicas around. (Well, that’s my amiga’s story anyway. Sounds reasonable, though).
By the time I finished dinner, the match was over and things seemed to be back to “normal”. I had put the boxing match completely out of my mind. It took a while for it to re-enter it, however. I didn’t notice anything strange until mesero #2 hustled my ass (in a good way) to the ATM for some pussy coupons. There were kiddies (Mexican and American) all over the place! I’ve been in that very neighborhood, at that very hour, a few times before, and it’s usually a ghost town, even at 3:30 AM on a Saturday night – even more so since 9-11.
Mesero #2 was walking too fast for me to ask him what was going on. I didn’t notice anything bad (yet), but just wondered “why so many kiddies everywhere?” When I began to strike out for my hotel for the night, that’s when I noticed the palpable “frenzy” in the air. There were people on every corner for a 2 x 2 block area around Rio. Many running this way, many more running that way. I smelled that unmistakable tinge of testosterone first smelt back in Junior High on the playground after school. Then I heard the word “fight” once or twice.
Personally, I detest violence (except boxing and football) – not from some moral platitude, but because it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I knew something was in the air, but I honestly just wanted to walk around the area to see if I could find any SGs (whom I thought were to be found in the vicinity). No SGs to be found, but more curious and pumped-up people walking around at every turn. This is weird. Must be a hell of a fight.
I did see a Latina and her amiga shouting-down and punching some loser, but that’s nothing new. Surely not what all the hoopla was about. Related? Who knows. There’s hombres running this way, and hombres running that way. There must have been a fight on every corner in the four block area. I just kept looking for SGs (really…)
Having not found any SGs, I decided to check out one of the many flash-points since it was on the way back to my hotel. There was a crowd of 20 or so Mexicanos. I stopped-by and asked some nerdy, little high-schooler’s (gringos) what the fuck was going on. They didn’t know, either. I tried to posit my theory that maybe it had something to do with the Trinidad fight. Trinidad lost. Only one or two little girls paid me any mind – the others were more interested in consoling themselves with their high-fallutin’, sophomoric BS like, “Everything will be okay, the police will take care of it”. Whatever. Fuck y’all anyway. Brats… Besides, “what police…?” They were everywhere that night due to the recent security concerns, but conspicuously absent in this neighborhood. WTF?
So, I sit down right across the street from the action in this corner of the ring (who knows what’s going on elsewhere) and smoke a cigarro. Lots of shouting. Then some dude starts kicking out store windows with his feet. More running around and shouting. I think there was a cop car or two already on the scene. Not sure WTF they were doing, though. Whatever it was, it wasn’t working. Finally, they round up the two antagonists – four cop cars and a cop truck were on the scene by now, one or two with automatic rifles.
This is where it gets really strange, or pretty pathetic anyway. Five fucking cop cars on the scene, and it takes these Keystone Cops another 10 minutes to fucking cuff the bastards. WTF? It’s like they were trying to “console” these thugs instead of arresting them. I said aloud, “You fucking idiots need to go back to Police School in LA!!” Thank God, none of them heard me. Then, to top it off, they put the two very large, very angry and very drunk hombres IN THE BACK OF THE SAME TRUCK (restrained only by handcuffs and one, little un-armed cop). Five fucking cop cars for one fight, and what do these idiots do? Put the two borracho Trinidad-cum-lately’s in the back of the same pickup truck – with ONE stupid cop (who weighs 100 lbs less than either of them) between them. The poor bastard almost fell out of the back of the truck - being battered about between the two antagonists like a fucking pinball machine. I just laughed – serves em’ right… I am not xenophobic and I love Mexicans, especially Nogalistas – but these cops are just plain fucking stupid and ineffective.
The remaining cops and a few onlookers rushed to another un-known scene of horror about ½ block away, but I’d seen enough and just went on home. I saw a cop on the way home and just muttered to him, “estranyo noche…”. He agreed. Weird.
So, is this what happens when a Mexican (or Latino) boxer loses a match to a non-Latino? I sure as hell ain’t throwing stones, here. Because that’s what drunken idiots do all over the world when the home team loses. Happened in my home town last year, in fact.
If anybody has a clue what was going on in Nogie that night, let me know.
Well, I’ll be curious to find out if my amiga stood me up, lied to me, or just mis-fired. She’s never lied to me before. At least I’ve got her number – I’ll give her a call. Maybe she knows what the fuck was up in that town last night.
I’m outta here – still trying to figure out if it was a good night or a bad one.
Your hapless lapdance reporter,
MrBillO™-
