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Cage-fighting man

'Kill him, Jimmy!' A night at the cage fight

Steven Berkoff

Wednesday, 29th August 2007

So we went to Wembley Arena to witness for the first time what is called ‘cage fighting’.

So we went to Wembley Arena to witness for the first time what is called ‘cage fighting’. The reason for this being, of course, that the combatants go to war in a rather large cage. The cage is bound in with a net of the kind of wire you might use for a chicken coop. There are no seats for the weary gladiators to rest on between their violent bouts, and so they stand or lean against the wire. Their seconds come into the cage through an opening in one of the sides and check them out or wave a towel to attempt to cool them down between rounds. The first thing you notice as you approach Wembley are the spectators, mostly youngish men but quite a few punchy and tattooed middle-agers and a few ‘birds’. Birds cackle and squawk.

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