Virginia has no fighting chance

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Jimmy Lange, with his sunglasses, looked as if he brought a little bit of Hollywood with him from his stint on the boxing show, "The Contender," to Northern Virginia yesterday at a press conference to announce his next fight.

Promoters better hope he picked up some special effects skills in Tinseltown because they might need some to turn what likely will be thousands of empty seats for that Sept.17 fight into a crowded arena.

Lange, a 29-year-old from Great Falls, is hoping to give boxing a boost in Northern Virginia by headlining the first boxing show at 10,000-seat Patriot Center in Fairfax.

No, Mike Tyson isn't on the card. Nor are Oscar De La Hoya or Butterbean or any other draw who would lead anyone to believe a crowd will emerge from of a place live boxing pretty much has been nonexistent. Just Lange and a host of local fighters who usually draw crowds at other venues that would be hard-pressed to fill some classrooms at George Mason University.

Lange, with a record of 25-2-1, is a local favorite among fight fans, a charismatic, talented fighter who caught the attention of the creators of the Sylvester Stallone's boxing show, "The Contender," and got some nice attention and a pretty nice paycheck -- $200,000. His next fight will be some sort of junior middleweight blood feud against a 38-year-old rival named Perry Ballard, who tried to present this fight yesterday at a press conference at Champps in Fairfax as Ali-Frazier reincarnate.

"When you have two fighters who can draw like we can, it can work," said Ballard, a fighter with a 17-0 record from Martinsburg, W.Va. "As long as people know it, there will be a lot of fans who will come to see us. It could put boxing on the map. We hope to fill the seats. ... Bring your family, bring your friends, but leave the kids at home because the blood is going to be flying."

Leave the kids at home? Heck, they may have to recruit Boy Scout troops to show up for community service. Can they earn boxing badges?

Organizers are hoping to attract George Mason and other college students to the show with a $10 discount. And apparently Moose members as well. "There will be a discount for them, too," Ballard said.

They had better offer discounts to the Elks, Eagles, Raccoons, Water Buffaloes and any other organizations that identify with the animal kingdom if they want to get any kind of crowd in there.

Live boxing in and around the Washington area has been, for the most part, a small-time affair. Even with national media and a meal ticket like Mike Tyson, promoters still couldn't fill MCI Center in June, and other fights in the past featuring well known local fighters with legitimate world championships -- fighters like Williams Joppy, Sharmba Mitchell and Mark Johnson -- couldn't fill even half of MCI Center or Washington Convention Center.