EVER FEEL LIKE YOU’RE BEING WATCHED?

One of the strange things you see in old black and white boxing photos is that the fights sometimes look like they’re taking place under a starry nighttime sky. Even weirder, those “stars” come in identical pairs — a constellation of double pinpoints all tilted in the same direction. They’re a bit like the headlights of distant cars gathered for a drive-in movie. Or eyes.

Today’s safety commissions would frown on the idea of shining bright lights in the fighters’ faces as they’re trying to avoid getting punched, but photographers back in the day needed powerful flashes to record the action on film emulsion that was less sensitive than the digital equipment of the 21st century. Combatants just had to deal with the inconvenience of being sporadically blinded while they worked. On the other hand, think how different Raging Bull would’ve been without the clank of exploding filaments, and how much those archaic safety hazards contribute to the cinematic allure of classic boxing. Even after the single-use glass grenades were replaced by less-dramatic electronic units, every attack in the ring came with its own fireworks display.

The slightly creepy side effect of those flashbulbs was that whenever one went off, everybody in the audience wearing glasses became a reflector. Every lens went supernova in the darkness. And thanks to those myopic fans, we have remarkable photos like these that connect a moment of action in the ring to the rapt attention of the people watching it happen:

Ruben Olivares (right) vs. Ernie Cruz, the Forum in Inglewood, March 17, 1969. (Photo: The Ring Magazine)

Roberto Duran (right) vs. Javier Ayala, the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, March 17, 1973. (Photo: The Ring Magazine)

Bobby Chacon (left) vs. Danny Lopez, Los Angeles Sports Arena, February 24,1974. (Photo: The Ring Magazine)