By Steve Bunce
IT IS possible that the Ulster Hall has the best seat anywhere in the world to watch boxing.
The optimum seat on the balcony, which is even closer to the ring than the one at York Hall, might just be about 10 feet away from and three feet higher than the boxers in the ring. It might also be an optical illusion, inspired by the atmosphere.
Every time I go to a fight there, I’m reminded of just how magnificent the place is. It is fancy, ornate and at the same time it feels like a bear pit when the boxing is on. It gets busy with just a few hundred people, chaotic with a thousand singing in harmony and drinking in tandem. It is special and it was last weekend; a rare fight night that was over before 10pm – the main event was waved off at 9:58pm. It was perfect.
In 2009, I was nearly bundled off the stage at the Ulster Hall when Setanta screened the Martin Lindsay and Paul Appleby British featherweight title fight. The place was packed to beyond capacity and our presentation space on the stage was shrinking by the minute. There was no security, just a camera or two and me and Andy Kerr. When the fight was stopped in the sixth, we were clinging on like climbers to the very edge of the stage. I think that when the director came back to the two of us at the end, a big, bald geezer was hugging and trying to kiss my head. Lindsay was the new champion; the fight, by the way, was special. Lindsay was unbeaten in 13 and Appleby unbeaten in 14, and they had both taken care of some good men on their way to the Ulster Hall. It is amazing how many gems are lost.
I was born too late to watch fights at Shoreditch Town Hall, which I’m reliably told was brilliant. I do remember the purpose-built boxing arena at Aldershot. It was, like the National Stadium in Dublin, a quality and decaying venue. In the Eighties, there was always a round of the Schoolboy championships in the Aldershot arena. I did some 35-bout marathon sessions there.
I once saw, from a seat in the balcony right above the ring, Dennis Andries knock out a man from the Lynn at Seymour Baths. I think it was the London semi-finals and Andries was boxing for the close to mythical Colvestone club. It was a long time ago, but that was a great venue and a great seat.
I had a tour of the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia and even in the afternoon with nobody there, it was obvious the place was exceptional. The thought that Bennie Briscoe had his 96th and last fight there – a full 20 years after his first fight in that fabled place – was mind-blowing. I guess it would be the same for fans at York Hall, knowing that once upon an East End night, Johnny Tapia walked to the same ring. The Tapia ring from York Hall, if I’m not mistaken, lives in a palace in Riyadh now.
The Ulster Hall has that feel, that sense that you are walking in history. It was in the ring there that Barry McGuigan won the vacant British featherweight title in 1983 when he dropped and stopped Vernon Penprase in two rounds. That would be my type of fantasy boxing night, forget Las Vegas for a second and let me take a seat on the balcony for McGuigan’s entrance. That would be wild.
In 2010 I was there for Carl Frampton’s win over Gavin Reid for the Celtic super-bantamweight title. It finished in the second and was a real taste of things to come. There was a similar sense last weekend with Lewis Crocker; the men in crocodile suits dancing on the stage helped, but then again, it’s much harder to buy a novelty jackal suit. Frampton lived less than a mile from the venue – I love the idea that a boxer tops the bill and can walk to the venue. That is old-school Rocky stuff.
Last Saturday at the Ulster Hall there was just about every single emotion and that is the way it should be. In Fibber Magee’s at midnight, there were still punters throwing the big looping shot that dropped Jose Felix. I’m sure that at the same time, people that care were putting a gentle hand on Tommy McCarthy’s shoulder. I hope they were.
Crocker will be back for bigger nights in a Belfast ring and McCarthy will need to do some long and hard thinking. The people with him should do the same.
The Paddy Donovan and Andy Lee cameo added a lot of class to the bill. Lee was a global star, but there was one night of his in Ireland that I really wish I had seen. It was 2005 at the National Stadium in Dublin and he beat the Cuban Yordanis Despaigne. This was a time when British and Irish boxers had finally, after about 35 years of defeats, started to beat the best Cubans. I like to imagine that Lee against Despaigne was the last fight of the night and victory for the mixed British and Irish team was dependent on the win. It was neither, but it was a nice idea. That venue is special.
The Ulster Hall glows at night in the wet and the dark. Inside it is even better. If you ever get a chance, go see a fight there and get one of those prime balcony seats and then close your eyes and imagine.
