Boxing: Roaring ring master a miracle

Michael Buffer is worth every cent. His din made up for a multitude of early sins at the David Tua comeback fight in West Auckland last night.

Until the dapper American ring announcer - he of the famous rumble - took to the ring, the atmosphere was flat.

"They've cut the music down - the Fight For Life is better," a former international sportsman told me.

"Dean Lonergan knows how to use sounds to build up the atmosphere."

Some good early preliminary fights were followed by drab jabs.

The major preliminary event - names and addresses of boxers withheld because they don't deserve the publicity - saw the supposed combatants cosying up to each other like best mates. They even kept shaking hands.

One of them saved his best aggression to the last, abusing the audience for not showing enough respect to his opponent/friend.

At least they had absolutely no chance of upstaging the main event, played out in front of plenty of empty seats.

Fight fanatics may have regarded the basketball stadium as half-full last night, but considering this was a famous comeback, it is fairer to say it wasn't much better than half-empty.

Except for the catered table area round the ring, that is, which was full - and full of empty wallets thanks to the charity auction.

The star of that show, which raised more noise than a lot of the preliminary boxing, was a Muhammad Ali-signed glove that fetched $22,500. A Matthew Hayden cricket bat fetched a lot more than you would give for the New Zealand cricket team right now.

Corporates and cheap seats alike roared into life as Tua arrived in style, being lowered from a balcony into the middle of the band area, landing near the drum kit.

Some hoopla and four national anthems later, Buffer made his entrance.

The man is a miracle. He has hair that wouldn't move in a cyclone, and a voice that sounds like a cyclone. He gets paid a lot, but it works.

And then ... the Test Out West (sounds better than the official Tua of Duty) crept into life. And then it began to roar ...