A Crazy Gambling Saturday

There are few things in life more satisfying to me than achieving victory as an underdog. It's an amazing feeling to win when you were not expected to, but you can even take it up a notch by saying that it is even more of an intense emotion when you win and people didn't want you to. Bragging rights are often hard to come by, but they are usually long-lasting and well worth whatever it took to get them.

I found myself in a situation yesterday that falls into the latter category, when my indirect achievement of victory was not wanted by the masses. This indirect victory would come via fan support, and I was supporting the boxer Floyd Mayweather who fought and beat the most beloved boxer of his generation, Oscar De La Hoya, in a split decision.

I found myself supporting Mayweather for a few reasons. I admired his confidence, which is actually more accurately put as cockyness. Normally i loathe cocky people, but he was very charismatic about it and he added a level of comedy to it that you usually don't see. In other words, he was cocky but he wasn't Terrell Owens. It was, I suppose, mainly because of his arrogance and personality coupled with the sheer love of De La Hoya by the masses that I felt like I had to support Mayweather, to sort of swim against the stream and not go with the popular opinion.

Oh, and he was also favored to win...

I had made some small-time bets with a few of my friends dealing with this bout, and there were more than a few of them willing to go with "Golden Boy" De La Hoya because of their own personal bias. There was a lot of trash talk going on dealing with the fight for a few days prior, and we were all hot on gambling since a group of us had placed some terrible bets on the Kentucky Derby earlier in the day. If there is room for personal profit, it obviously elevates the excitement of viewing any sporting event, and boxing is traditionally a very heavily-wagered on sport.

We planned to order the fight on pay-per-view, and we all pitched in money and went over to my friend's house for some good rivalry and boisterousness (I don't know if that's even a word). I knew when we left for the house that many of the occupants were very heavily against Mayweather, and these were some loud loud men. I didn't think it would be so lop-sided, though.

I took a seat next to my good buddy Spencer who had also bet on Mayweather and was a pretty big fan. We found out quickly that we were severely outnumbered and were the only kids in the entire place out of about twenty who were rooting for Mayweather.

There was a lot of screaming and select words thrown out during the fight, and at times it was hard to figure out that Mayweather was indeed getting the best of the fight because every time De La Hoya would blink an eye everyone in the room and in the arena would shout their approval.

The fight went the full twelve rounds, and Mayweather got the victory. I was sitting on the couch in the corner and Spence and I were preparing to assemble any type of makeshift weapon we could muster, fearing that we would have to fight our way to the door kicking and screaming. Fortunately for us, they forgot about the fight almost immediately and began playing card games.

I made some money from this, but that was not the sweetest thing. The looks on the faces of those whom I had been jabbering and gambling with were worth more than the ten dollar bets that I had won could have ever been. It was great fun, and long live those who are hated by the many and respected by the few. The ones with their backs to the wall suffering disapproving looks are always the most dangerous, for they are the ones with nothing to lose.