SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

Kenny Hynes of Cooper City is trying to go up the down escalator with three girls trailing behind him. "Whoa, whoa, watch your heels," he says, stopping abruptly. "What's going on? This thing was going up a second ago."

What's going on is the escalators have been preset for the mass exit of fight fans from inside Hard Rock Live following the main bout between junior welterweights Juan Urango and Naoufel Ben Rabah. "Hey, I've got hot girls here!" Hynes shouts to the attendant on the second level. "We need up!"

Hynes flashes some money at the usher. The girls are hot, in a Tara Reid-after-four-drinks sort of way, but the attendant just shakes his head.

"Forget it," one of the girls says. "It's probably over."

"I don't care. I told you we're starting the night with the fights. Follow me," Hynes says, disappearing into a stairwell.

The venue is jammed with thousands of other fans starting the night with a fight. Once a month for the past two years, the Hollywood-based Warriors Boxing has been drawing huge crowds to its fights at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Tonight's bout, which is being broadcast live on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights, is no exception.

"This is perfect for us. We stage our own fight nights at the park and go at it, " Fort Lauderdale fight fan Kimon Voyages says. "And then, we've got a bunch of old fights we watch on video."

"Berbick/Tyson," his friend Chris Mayor adds. "We're all 19, but we're into old-school stuff. We watch that over and over again. … Who's here tonight? There's always celebrities here."

Several fans beside Mayor stand up and begin scanning the crowd below as if they're paparazzi on a hill with high-powered lenses. Notables are always seated ringside. Sometimes, it's just retired boxers or the guy from those Tae Bo infomercials. But tonight, Fat Joe and the Miami Heat's Udonis Haslem are in the front rows.

"Let's see the championship ring!" some fans scream at Haslem.

"They haven't even designed it, you idiots!" someone else in the crowd shouts back.

Haslem gives a gentle, ringless wave that seems to settle the issue. Everyone goes back to yelling "Ding-a-ling," the nickname of Darnell Wilson, one of the fighters currently battling in the ring. Nicknames go a long way in this game. Dale "Cowboy" Brown is also getting talked up in the crowd simply because everyone enjoys yelling out, "Cowboy!"

"I don't know who these guys are, but I go online and bet on the fights before we come," Voyages says.

Except for the mass of flag-waving Colombians who have come to see Urango fight for the vacant IBF title, most of the fans appear oblivious to the names in tonight's seven-bout lineup. Since the venue is smack in the heart of the Hard Rock's Seminole Paradise entertainment area, half the crowd seems to have just stumbled in after riding the mechanical bull at Tequila Ranch. It's impossible to tell if the ladies are dressed up for the main event or to go to Pangaea afterward.

"Spirits. We're going to Spirits," a fan named Tonia Kozlowski corrects.

It's not that she and her Fort Lauderdale friends aren't into the fights. "It's barbaric. I love it," Jennifer Hoff says. "I love the sweat and blood flying around."

"We see the fights on at bars all the time or on pay-per-view at someone's house," Rachel Kornfield says. "But it's great to have it right in your face."

Since most of the nightclubs at Paradise don't heat up until the midnight hour, the fights are also a great time killer for people who aren't into sitting at home staring at themselves in the mirror, trying on 15 outfits or watching Office Space and drinking Red Bull to stay awake until 11:45. Nothing kills boredom quicker than sweat and blood.

"It's better than a video game," says Spencer Degen, a Hollywood resident who's attending his first fight after getting a free ticket from a friend who works at the nearby Renegade Barbeque Co. restaurant.

"Wrestling is so over," Hialeah-based fan Shawn Miodonski argues. "This is the thing now."

Degen is into the boxing, but his seats are also good enough that he's distracted by the ring-card girls who strut around the ring between rounds. Several guys in Degen's row are marveling at the beefy man whose job it is to escort the women and help them in and out of the ring. "I want that job," Degen says.

"This isn't all I do," says Brandon Martin, a promotions coordinator at the Hard Rock, seconds after spreading the ropes so a thonged ring girl named Crystal could climb through. "But it is a great job, isn't it? I moved here from Louisiana two years ago. I traded in the swamps and the bayou for ring girls and celebrities. Good deal, huh?"

Good deal.

"Sometimes, the crowd is into the ring girls more than the fight," Roger Meisner of Pompano Beach says, shaking his head at the scene. But plenty of serious fight fans are on hand, including Meisner, who even attended the weigh-in held the day before the fight.

Fort Lauderdale resident Dominic Santarelli has made a week of boxing, having also taken in the WBC super featherweight title match between Oscar Leon and Francisco Lorenzo in Miami the night before. Big Star Productions has resurrected Miami Fight Night at the American Airlines Arena, taking a more-upscale approach with VIP tables on the floor and gourmet chefs ringside.

An avid fan, Santarelli seems like a good person to ask about all the different boxing associations -- WBF, IBF, WBA, NABO. How do you keep track of them? Are some more legit than others? It's hard to figure what the difference would be between the World Boxing Association and the International Boxing Federation. Shouldn't international and world be the same thing?

"I don't really care about any of that," Santarelli says.

Back in the ring, "Cowboy" Brown just head-butted his opponent. (The guys with nicknames always come through.) With blood cascading down his face, cruiserweight Shane Swartz looks as if he just got shot with a red paintball. Half the crowd is up and screaming -- the half that really wants to watch ultimate fighting.

"Boxing is OK," says Voyages, whom, if you recall, likes to stage fights in public parks. "But ultimate fighting -- that's what it's all about."

With all eyes on the bloody scene, some savvy fans are taking advantage of the diversion to sneak past security and get their photos taken with VIPs. Johnny Narvaez and his friend Jennifer Wade have been weaving in and out of the VIP ropes all night to hook up with famous faces, The 125-pound Narvaez is an amateur boxer himself who trains with the Davie Police Athletic League and plans to try out for the Olympics. Remember his name, because if he is anywhere near as cunning and fast in the ring as he is at getting his photo taken with celebrities, he will have a stellar career.

The referee stops the Brown-Swartz fight, and even the goofiest fans are getting serious as the night heads toward the main event. The boxers' entourages are entering the ring and flashing humongous championship belts. Some look a little suspect, as if they might have been won not in a 12-round title fight but in a late-night bidding war on eBay. One could easily pass for one of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's old World Wrestling Federation belts. Another is so shiny, lime and brightly jeweled that it looks like something King Tut might wear to a James Brown concert.

Urango is clearly the crowd favorite. Colombian flags are flying, and Ray Olin of Hialeah is pacing up in the cheap seats and hollering, "Urango! Urango! Urango! Look at me!" This is akin to standing on the roof of the Hard Rock Hotel and trying to order a drink from the pool bar. "URANGO! Look at me!"

"We make eye contact, and that's it," Olin says. "Then, victory."

Maybe he's onto something. Quicker than you can say, "Twelve tedious rounds later," Urango's arm is raised in triumph.

A couple of minor bouts are still to come, but the crowd is flowing toward the exits. Scheduled to fight next, lightweight Kevin Carmody is sitting alone in a chair in the lobby, patiently waiting for his shot. He's one boxer who doesn't waste time with fancy underwear, but the fans are done with boxing for tonight. They push past him.

The escalators are all going down. Girls in short, plaid skirts are handing out free drink coupons for Murphy's Law. And just as drivers squeal out of theater parking lots after a car-chase movie, the guys are now bouncing off one another other with post-fight adrenaline, ramming, battering and head-butting their way to Paradise.

The next Warriors Boxing event, Battle for the Number One Spot, will take place 6:30 p.m. Friday at Hard Rock Live, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, 1 Seminole Way, in Hollywood. Olympic silver medalist Sultan Ibragimov and Ray Austin will compete in an IBF heavyweight-title elimination bout. The winner will go on to face Wladimir Klitschko for the heavyweight title. Tickets cost $25-$150. Call 954/797-5531 or visit Warriorsboxing.com.