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By Lee Groves - The first ESPN boxing "doubleheader week" kicked off last week, and it proved to be an aeronautical and emotional roller coaster. It was a trip filled with contrasts between the ropes and beyond them on many levels. We saw prospects emerge, ring veterans falter and novice pros seek their place in the pecking order, a place that lasts only as long as the time between fights. For more details on what happened, read this week's two-part installment of "The Traveling Man Chronicles."
Tuesday, April 15: Football players know all about "two-a-days," the tortuously intense phase of training camp involving morning and afternoon practices. These days the process is less arduous only because players keep themselves in shape year-around as opposed to their predecessors, but the tradition of two-a-days remains a vital rite of football culture.
In that vein, the 2008 ESPN boxing season began its own version of two-a-days as it kicked off its slate of Wednesday-Friday telecasts. For many, the next four months will be a blurring succession of airports, hotels, rental cars and fight arenas that surely will test their endurance as well as their patience with the perpetually embattled airline industry.
For everyone involved in the Traveling Circus the pressures of preparation and performance are escalated. The production crews must walk the demanding tight rope of technical perfection not once but twice every week. The on-air talent must gather and present information on twice as many fighters yet do so with the same level of professionalism and enthusiasm, a charge that could get difficult during the later stages of this annual odyssey. [details]
Tuesday, April 15: Football players know all about "two-a-days," the tortuously intense phase of training camp involving morning and afternoon practices. These days the process is less arduous only because players keep themselves in shape year-around as opposed to their predecessors, but the tradition of two-a-days remains a vital rite of football culture.
In that vein, the 2008 ESPN boxing season began its own version of two-a-days as it kicked off its slate of Wednesday-Friday telecasts. For many, the next four months will be a blurring succession of airports, hotels, rental cars and fight arenas that surely will test their endurance as well as their patience with the perpetually embattled airline industry.
For everyone involved in the Traveling Circus the pressures of preparation and performance are escalated. The production crews must walk the demanding tight rope of technical perfection not once but twice every week. The on-air talent must gather and present information on twice as many fighters yet do so with the same level of professionalism and enthusiasm, a charge that could get difficult during the later stages of this annual odyssey. [details]