Steve's Backyard Boxing ( or SBB) was, at its surface, a semiweekly amateur boxing event in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
The Beginning edit
The story of SBB began in 1999, when Peter Clark, a suburban Jeffersonville, Indiana youth approached Steve Knight with a desire to box. Together they approached Vinny Damm, an associate of Steve's, who provided the first venue for boxing. Peter and Steve boxed each other several times but wished to include more of their friends in the fun.
It was not until the spring of 2000 that Steve could create the interest amongst his friends to actually hold the event. In order to accommodate his friends, Steve moved the venue from Vinny's house to the backyard of his apartment, where he lived with Claire Dufton and Dawson. He also promised them beer. On April 9, 2000 the inaugural Steve's Backyard Boxing was held with more than 20 people in attendance. That day almost twenty fights were held.
The Event edit
The event occurred, at least in its inaugural year, every other Sunday starting from April 9, 2000 to August 30, 2000. In successive years, due to a number of circumstances, it occurred much less frequently.
While fights were an integral part of SBB, there were other things necessary to it as well, most notably beer. Most of the combatants were minors and not legally allowed to drink, though that did not stop them. In fact, that was why many of them came. Beer served to create a much more laid-back, social atmosphere, and to dull the sting of hits to the face.
The Rules edit
- Any who willfully entered into the "ring" waived their right to sue Steve for any harm to their person as a result of a fight.
- Each fight consisted of three rounds, each lasting a minute, though either fighter could end it early if they wished with their only punishment being the jokes and jeers of their peers.
- Punches were to be kept above the belt.
- There were to be no attacks with anything other than ones gloved fists, which meant no biting, kicking, kneeing, tackling, etc.
- If a fighter had a reason to dislike another fighter or bore a grudge against them, they were not allowed to fight them.
- There were no "winners" or "losers," so knocking out your opponent was not encouraged.
- If possible, all fights were recorded and posted on the website.
Those who broke the rules or lacked respect for others involved were banned from ever attending SBB again and had their names added to the website's Hall of the Damned.
The Boxers edit
In the entire history of SBB, only three participants were actually trained fighters. Of these, only one was trained in boxing (the others were trained in Taekwando).
All in attendance could participate, and were encouraged to do so. There were no weight classes, though only the foolhardy fought anyone considerably heavier than themselves. Boys tended to fight boys, girls tended to fight girls, though there was some cross-gender fighting. Notable cross-gender fighters were Claire Dufton, who most often fought young men, and Jody Barnes, who most often fought young women, likening him to Andy Kaufman. Shawn Conn, webmaster of the official SBB website, was also a cross-gender fighter, though this is only because he accepted all challengers.
The Injuries edit
The participants being largely untrained, most had a difficult time injuring another person with 16 ounces of padding covering their fists. However this lack of training also made it difficult to prevent injury. The most common injuries were bruises and scrapes caused by missteps, but there were a few greater injuries of note:
- In an egregious violation of the rules, Claire Dufton bit Shawn Conn on his shoulder hard and long enough to scar him for well over a year.
- Coire, in his first and only fight, had his nose broken by Jon Chapman. Coire was actually partnered in this fight with Craig Lee against Jon, but their partnership was largely ineffectual. Jon was quoted as saying "I had to take one of them out," though he had not meant to cause such severe damage. This injury ended the fight as Coire dropped to his knees, threw off his gloves, and held his nose.
- People should be more careful what they say about other people in newspapers and online.
- Jody Barnes was concussed and given a perforated eardrum in a career-ending match with Claire Dufton.
- Will Davis had the cap of a filling knocked off by Peter Clark
The Controversy edit
Though it is easy to relate the two, when SBB began, the movie Fight Club had not yet been released, and neither Steve nor Peter were aware of the book written by Chuck Palahniuk.
The Website edit
Steve's Backyard Boxing!!!, the official website and an integral part of SBB, was created by Shawn Conn in the fall of 2000. It offers a short history, bios, reviews and links to recorded fights, statistics and a countdown to the next scheduled event. It has been featured in Bizarre Magazine and Portal of Evil. It is often the first link found from a Google search for "backyard boxing".
The website at one time hosted all recorded fights which were freely viewable to all who visited the site, but due to lack of webspace the fights are no longer hosted. Since taking the fights down, the webmaster began offering DVD-ROMs containing all fights to visitors for a nominal fee. These DVDs have been requested and sent to visitors from Japan, Ireland, Canada, and the continental United States.