Covering a boxing match.

[brickcityboxing]

Just got a gig writing for a site. My first event is on Friday and my second one will be Saturday (Adamek vs Cunningham 2 ). I'm about as green as can be when it comes to this sort of thing and I'm starting to get a little nervous. I really thought this would be a "dream job" (not getting paid) , but the more I think about it the more I'm starting to think it might suck to have to sit there and not be able to enjoy the fight because I'm thinking about writing, or I can't cheer if someone lands something big because its prob not professional.

Am I overthinking this ?
Nothing to worry about ?
Can you cover an event and still have a good time ?

Any advice and or tips would be greatly appreciated.

[brickcityboxing]

[hectari]

What site you writing for?

Man I bet you will have a good time, that would be an awesome job to have covering fights live and just writing about it.

[teddycanyon]

any other job openings? I've always wanted to do a little boxing writing for New York fights.

Anyway I would err on the side of caution about celebrating too much or cheering for one fighter. I'm pretty sure you can get into it, I have a hard time believing Kieran Mulvaney is sitting there stone-faced when he covers a fight for ESPN.

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

My only advice is and it's something I've come to figure out, being nervous makes everything worst. Just relax, deep breaths and do what you gotta do. Whatever is gonna happen is gonna happen.

[TheRealNess]

naw man that pretty dope write it down on paper and just transfer that into text after the fight, Use natural dragon or something and you be done asap.

and this job might leads to better and paying ones too, their people who make a living writing boxing and if you love boxing then that cant be too shabby.

[LA_2_Vegas]

Well, since nobody is likely to know who you are at first..just act yourself and do a lot of observing, watch how the other "pros" act I guess. I wouldn't overtly cheer for any fighter but reacting to the action is human

I'm no writer, but this is just what I would do:

Prepare as much of the article as you can before the event even starts. There is plenty of background info for any given fight that can be done beforehand. that way all that should be left is the story of the fight and the play-by-play of noteworthy rounds.

Score every round, take simple notes during the fight. maybe voice notes so that you don't look down and miss anything. then summarize the play-by-play notes into meaningful paragraphs in between fights.

Think about a narrative that will open the article the day before and then one to conclude it with as you're sitting there. Sometimes there are 20-minute blocks of nothing happening at live events, so I imagine this is when many writers try to multitask and put in work. From what I've seen being at small to large fights, not all of them watch every single fight intently

I'm sure you've just sat back and had to pay attention to closely score a fight before, I would just approach it like that. Just prepare as much as possible beforehand and your stress level should decrease and most of your time can be spent paying close attention to the fights.

[IMDAZED]

My advice to you is to remember that writing an article doesn't mean laying out every single detail that occurs - just the more notable ones. For instance, someone might write "Chavez keeps coming forward" or "Chavez took the shot and responded" or some variation of that in each round when a simple "The more punches he ate, the more emboldened he became" could simply cover his actions for several rounds and not just one. Not sure if that makes sense. Just keep in mind the "flow" of the fight rather than play-by-play. So you actually can enjoy the fight while covering it. Also keep in mind that the atmosphere of the crowd and other notable things should be factored in. If it's a fight that will be on TV later you can always find those missing details--just enjoy it, take note of things that stand out and write it while it's still fresh in your head. That will also give you more time to edit.

[warp1432]

Originally Posted by brickcityboxing

Just got a gig writing for a site. My first event is on Friday and my second one will be Saturday (Adamek vs Cunningham 2 ). I'm about as green as can be when it comes to this sort of thing and I'm starting to get a little nervous. I really thought this would be a "dream job" (not getting paid) , but the more I think about it the more I'm starting to think it might suck to have to sit there and not be able to enjoy the fight because I'm thinking about writing, or I can't cheer if someone lands something big because its prob not professional.

Am I overthinking this ?
Nothing to worry about ?
Can you cover an event and still have a good time ?

Any advice and or tips would be greatly appreciated.

What I like to do when the fights are happening is keep track on a laptop/notebook of what happens in each particular round. Just take quick notes as the action as happening. They don't need to be anything in depth, but just note what happens in the round (i.e. Boxers feeling each other out. Cunningham lands a good right hand in the first half of the round. Adamek answers back with a left).

This will help you when writing your post fight report for later. For the undercard fights, I like to write the wrap up in between fights. Normally I just write a couple of sentences to cover the bout and go indepth for the main event.

How familiar are you with writing in a journalistic style? Most leads (the beginning) are only a sentence between 25-30 words. Use quotes to support the structure of the story. Trust me, it makes your writing flow a lot better. I didn't do this at first and looking back, my writing was crap.

That all being said, I have a great time at covering events. The fights are just as enjoyable and if anything, you get way better access than you would normally.

Don't focus on being nervous there. Focus on your writing. I'm not an expert by any means, but I've gotten some really good advice along the way from professors to writers in the field (Boxingscene's own David Greisman)

Hope this helps.

(Background info: I've covered fights in the Chicago land area for the last three years. For the past two years, I've written for Maxboxing.com and am a journalism student at DePaul University.)

[KnockUTheFukOut]

If your doing like "Live Round By Round Coverage" then keep things short and straight to the damn point, don't have to discribe every little thing like for example : "Cunningham throws and Jab, another jab, another jab and another jab Now Adamek Throws A Jab" lol