The lights dim and the smoke from hundreds of cigars seems to rush to the electric glow above the boxing ring in the center of the cavernous main room.
Triumphal music plays as women in scanty costumes strut across the mat to get the attention of the standing-room-only crowd of nearly 1,000 people. The din of voices recedes to a low rumble as the announcer declares that the War on the Waterfront has begun.
This is top-notch professional boxing, complete with all the pomp and circumstance that fight fans have come to expect from the best of Las Vegas matches. The War on the Waterfront has everything except a bank of slot machines.
And that’s only because the State of Illinois won’t allow them. The War on the Waterfront wasn’t held in Vegas. It played out in January and again in February at the Fiesta Palace nightclub on Genesee Street in downtown Waukegan.
These were the most recent installments in what is becoming a regular series of professional boxing matches held in Waukegan by local company Punch Promotions Inc. With a growing market and an ideal venue, Punch hopes to put Lake County’s largest city on the map as an obligatory stop for professional fighters from around the world.
“We have dedicated ourselves to making this an institution in Lake County,” said Nico Saldana, co-owner of Punch Promotions. “The Friday Night Fights. That’s what we want. We want it to be an event that people can count on and plan for consistently.”
Saldana is an ex-fighter who once went by the professional name William “Krystal Kid” Clayton. He also is a former Waukegan police officer. A native of Flint, Mich., Saldana came to Waukegan by way of Chicago, where he grew up.
The fights are equal parts athletic prowess and show-biz glitz, designed from the beginning to provide an entire evening of boisterous entertainment. So far the formula has been quite successful.
“I like to watch fights on television, but to be there in person was fantastic,” said Wilma Pavin, 40, of Zion, who attended the War on the Waterfront Jan. 17. “Everybody was nice and polite, and the whole show was very well run. I was very impressed.”
January saw the Illinois Welterweight Championship bout, and February brought two more state championships, plus the World Junior Welterweight Championship. The Feb. 28 match was the first world championship ever fought in Lake County, according to Saldana.
Saldana founded Punch Promotions last year with partner Maureen Muse, a longtime Waukegan resident who runs a real estate business in Gurnee. Muse handles the money while Saldana presses the flesh.
“My father and my brother were both fighters, and boxing is my favorite sport,” Muse said. “Punch was an excellent opportunity to get involved in this, and I love it.”
The partners put on four shows at Fiesta Palace last year, fine-tuning their product and spreading the word with single events before debuting the Friday Night Fights series, which will become a monthly event soon.
Putting on a full-blown boxing spectacular is a complicated project. First, a promoter needs a venue. Fiesta Palace owner Jorge Torres couldn’t be more obliging. His nightclub is easily the most visible business in downtown Waukegan, with a well-established clientele and plenty of space.
“Nico does a great job with these shows,” Torres said. “He really packs them in. The fights also help to dispel the assumption that Fiesta Palace is strictly a Hispanic nightclub. We have things for everybody here.”
Then comes the tricky part. A promoter has to schmooze a lot of people to put on a profitable fight. A good show needs judges, announcers, booze and lots and lots of pre-fight promotion. Many services are offered in-kind, in exchange for promotional consideration or other services. Some vendors prefer cash up front.
What makes it tricky is figuring out exactly what is being sold to whom. Until a fight is matched and the fighters are booked for the night, nobody really knows what is going to happen or how many people are likely to show up. The best fighters may not take a fight until they know what the venue will be like. A world title fight like the one in February tends to attract more paying customers than a smaller bout. Everything from the beer to the fighters to the cigar concession is in a state of flux until everybody has signed on the dotted line.
Good matchmaking is the crux of the fight. All too often, fights are purposely mismatched to give one fighter a night of lopsided glory, Saldana said. Such fights are quick and dirty and don’t appeal to knowledgeable crowds. Injuries also are common in mismatched fights, contributing to the misconception that boxing is dangerous enough to be banned, he asserted.
“Good matchmaking always results in better fights and fewer injuries. People don’t come back if a fight only goes two rounds because it isn’t fun and they didn’t get their money’s worth,” Saldana said.
Many of the Fiesta Palace fights have been set up by veteran matchmaker Jack Cowan of Chicago. A former promoter, Cowan started in the boxing business in 1957. The idea, he said, is to decide who has to be in the match, or “on the card,” and then find a suitable opponent.
“Sometimes one of the guys lives in the neighborhood or he’s got a big name and he’s going to bring people out, so you have to get him on the card,” Cowan explained. “I think most of the fights in Waukegan have been very well matched. The quality of the shows has been quite good.”
A typical evening, which lasts about four hours, consists of seven matches lasting from 4 to 12 rounds each. The Friday Night Fight on Feb. 28, for example, showcased four preliminary state title bouts and two state championships in addition to the world championship.
Everybody involved in the fights is committed to putting on the best show possible and making the Fiesta Palace the best club-boxing venue between Chicago and Milwaukee, Saldana said. This is not a quickie moneymaker. Punch Promotions is in business for the long term.
“He’s improving and fine-tuning with every fight,” said Brian Nix, a Chicago-based writer for International Boxing Digest magazine. “You have to do a lot of hustling here to do a show that will end up in the black, and he puts on a great show.”
The fine-tuning has been working nicely too. Only about 100 people showed up to the first fight at Fiesta Palace. Four fights later attendance was up to nearly 1,000, and plans are being made to make room for even more people.
One of the ways promoters get money up front is by selling blocks of seats to businesses and individuals who want to take clients, customers or friends out for a night on the town. Ringside tables of nine seats each can be reserved in advance, and demand is high.
“Last time we (reserved) 8 of 10 available tables, so for the next fight we agreed to only reserve five to give somebody else a chance,” said Ken Mathis, owner of Jester’s, a tavern and pizza place in Waukegan that books blocks of seats for regulars. “Of course, we always get the balcony, too, and we can get 75 people up there. We only got 35 people to come out the first time. We took 118 people last time. It’s a great night out.”
“It was fabulous,” said Michael Asma of Waukegan, a Jester’s regular. “It’s something that doesn’t happen around here very often. I think a lot of people would enjoy the fights.”
The more the merrier, Saldana said. Not only do larger crowds have an obvious effect on his bottom line, they also mean that more people come into downtown Waukegan. The Friday Night Fights are another high-profile addition to the nascent renaissance growing in the city’s central area. Boxing also goes with casinos, and the Waukegan City Council has said that the city would look favorably upon a riverboat casino license if the General Assembly were to make one available.
“That would probably be a good thing, but we can’t wait for that,” Saldana said. “The Friday Night Fights are right here, right now. They will help bring people back into downtown, and they have to succeed independently of a casino. I’m doing this because I love it and because I love Waukegan. There is so much potential here. I can see possibilities everywhere.”
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Bouts are held at the Fiesta Palace, 202 N. Genesee St., Waukegan. The next session is at 8 p.m. April 11. For information, phone 847-633-0283.
