Report and photos by Juan C. Ayllon

CHICAGO – They’re the meat and potatoes of a boxing gym – dues-paying members ranging from unskilled laborers to commodities traders, honing their bodies and skills in the disciplines of pugilism. Most will never be mistaken for professional fighters, but donning protective headgear, gum shields, boxing gloves and trunks, tonight they thrilled an estimated crowd of 200. From the sounds of their raucous cheers, you’d think it was a main event at Madison Square Garden.

Only, it’s not.

It's Satuday, March 7, 2009. Held at the Chicago Boxing Club just south of 35th and Halstead, the “Bridgeport Beatdown 2009” is a night of white collar boxing, an event that showcases some of the rank and file in perhaps a dozen boxing matches. The combatants slug it out with relish and studied efforts atop the red canvassed ring, seeking to apply their gym-learned lessons in the heat of battle: Pump the jab, keep the guard up, throw the uppercut –which their corners are only too happy to remind them via sharp, barked orders. Afterwards, they sweat profusely and noses bloodied, they embrace and exchange words of mutual admiration.

Save for a few professional and amateur fighters, the audience indulges in drinks and burritos, chips and salsa catered from a local Mexican restaurant and served up in baskets on tables around the ring.

“Macho” Miguel Hernandez, a professional middleweight boxer with a fight on March 27th joins his son, Joshuah, and fellow fighter Angel “Torrito” Hernandez in raucous cheering. “I’m trying not to eat, he says,” smiling as he spies the bountiful harvest in baskets about the room. Ah, the disciplines of a fighter!

Rita Figueroa, a female boxer featured on the same upcoming show as Hernandez, works a corner alongside her acclaimed trainer, Sam Colonna (who’s also a partner in Chicago Boxing Club) for a female combatant. Like Hernandez, she’s cutting weight and looking taut about the face for all her efforts effortsIt’s a great night. Rick Ramos, a partner with Colonna in Chicago Boxing Club, is pleased with the turnout. People clap him on the back and congratulate him on the event as they file out. And why not? The night was more gratifying than a lot of the Pay-Per-View events served up on TV, which goes to show you -- sometimes meat and potatoes are just what the doctor ordered.