Some Heavy Weights, Fancy Footwork at Ballroom Boxing

It is nearly time for Boxing by the Beach at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Long Beach. Inside the Grand Ballroom, which holds a red-aproned boxing ring, promoter Steve Brooks writes checks to people who have provided their services for the evening.

“All the fighters made weight, so that’s a minor miracle,” he said. “One was a pound over, but they put him on a bike for 40 minutes and he lost it.”

The doors open, the crowd files in.

Leah Newman and Darcy Austin wait nervously in a hotel room. They will be two of the ring girls, the first time for both. Newman is a cocktail waitress at a popular sports bar, where she did well in a recent bikini contest. Austin works at a nightclub, where she wrestles customers in hot shaving cream.

Beneath a ceiling of little white lights similar to those that decorate Christmas trees, the fights begin. Salvador Montes knocks out Anthony (Hummingbird) Corriel in the first round.

Newman and Austin, in skimpy bathing suits, parade around the ring. Cheers and “yows” rise from the crowd.

Newman returns to her chair. Her hand shakes.

The smacks from red leather gloves echo during the next two bouts.

“Take him out!” booms Gene Layton, an ex-pro football player who is sitting--by design, he said--behind the ring girls.

But one person at ringside looks bored.

“I’ve seen more excitement at a Broadway musical,” said Gordon James, president of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera.

Time for the main event: Ray McElroy vs. Robert (Showdown) Carson of San Pedro. Both have tassels on their shoes.

There is a flurry of punches in the eighth and final round. Sweat drops fly into the first row.

“Comb-in-a-tion, comb-in-a-tion,” instructs a fan, his hands cupped around his mouth.

It is over. McElroy wins a unanimous decision. Sonny Ray pulls off McElroy’s gloves.

The fighters leave the ring.

“Champ didn’t knock you out, baby,” Carson’s girlfriend shouts to him.

They both smile.

Already, the ring is being taken down.