Above: The Las Vegas Hustle enters the arena. (Photo: Team Combat League)

WITH AN ACTION-CRAVING PUBLIC IN MIND, TEAM COMBAT LEAGUE IS OFFERING A RETOOLED VERSION OF BOXING THAT STOKES CITY RIVALRIES

Ever since the Greeks and Romans first strapped leather strips across their knuckles and stepped to the line, boxing has been a solitary sport. No matter how full the arena, the boxer stands alone in confrontation with his opponent.

At best, the fighter may have a loyal second in the corner to wipe the sweat from his brow and the blood from his face while handing him water and, at times, sound advice. But for the most part, the fighter’s inspiration and resolve must come solely from within.

At least that was the case until just over a year ago when a small group of men with a different point of view came up with a unique twist on the loneliest sport. They wanted to turn boxing into a team event with rosters of 24 fighters as well as coaches and a management structure around each of what is now a 12-team league still in its infancy. Thus was born Team Combat League, an organization trying to turn prizefighting into what it has never really been outside the amateurs, which is to say a team sport. Or at least as close as it will ever come.

TCL is providing old-school fans with a new view of the Sweet Science and a newer, social media-driven generation, a rapid-fire way to watch boxing. To be honest, boxing has long been hide-bound, seldom reacting well to the suggestion that things should change from the way they’ve always been done. If it was good enough for Jack Johnson and Benny Leonard, for Ray Robinson and Joe Louis, for Ali and Frazier and for Tyson and Holyfield, why change?

TCL President Dewey Cooper (Photo courtesy Team Combat League)

Well, in the opinion of Team Combat League president Dewey Cooper, himself a legend in the worlds of kickboxing and mixed martial arts as well as the boxing trainer for UFC fighter-turned-heavyweight boxer Francis Ngannou, the winds of change are blowing and he hopes they will turn TCL into “the next big thing.”

“Team Combat League is the boxing format of the future,” Cooper recently pronounced in his pleasantly bombastic style. “This is a team concept, not an individual endeavor, and that makes each fight a short, explosive three minutes of boxing. Unlike individual boxing, in Team Combat a fighter has only three minutes to show their skill and impose their will. Three minutes to go all out and win points for their team.

“The format guarantees action because there’s no time for a feeling-out process. As the fights go along and the scores get tighter, the boxers are forced to go for broke at times to make up a scoring deficit if their team is on the wrong side of the scoreboard. It makes for all-action rounds.

“The basic idea is we’re making a new team sport that encompasses the public’s short attention span today. What’s more exciting than boxing when every round is a championship round?”

By now, if you are an old-school fight fan, you might be asking, ‘What are you talking about?’ That’s a good question with a relatively simple answer. Each of TCL’s 12 teams has a roster of 24 fighters. Usually only 16 will compete in a single competition in which the contest is broken up into three sets of eight one-round fights. In other words, two fighters box for three minutes, the round is scored and each team is awarded points. As soon as it ends, two more fighters step into the ring, often before the first score is posted.

There are two sets of eight fights leading up to what is called “The MONEY Round.” That is the final eight fights, which feature fighters who have already boxed once that night. Coaches from the two teams agree in advance who those eight will be, and if one is knocked out earlier in the night, that fight becomes an automatic win for the opposing side.

Light heavyweights Money Powell (left, Atlanta Attack) and Brayan Leon (LA Elite) square off. (Photo courtesy of Team Combat League)

The scoring is the same as traditional boxing with one twist. A decision with no knockdown is a 10-9 round. One knockdown is a 10-8 round. Two knockdowns or a stoppage results in a 10-7 score and not only ends the round but ends the night for the loser. If that fighter is also scheduled for a “Money Round” fight, it becomes a double loss, often leaving fighters doing all they can, if in trouble, to hold on long enough to avoid the 10-7 score that means their elimination.

In many ways, the format itself guarantees close results, with the events often coming down to a final few rounds in which one team needs one or more knockdowns to pull out a win while the opposing side is trying desperately to avoid that fate.

“I’m always intrigued with different concepts of boxing,” said Houston Hitmen coach Austin Trout. The 38-year-old former WBA junior middleweight champion who defeated Miguel Cotto, among others during his career, sees Team Combat as a change in format that may be coming at the right time for boxing.

“It’s so fast-paced,” Trout said. “When’s the last time you saw two fighters trade knockdowns in a round? I’ve seen it three times in Team Combat. Things like that don’t happen in regular boxing. It’s like the NBA, where a 15-point lead isn’t safe.

“It reminds me of when we were amateurs. A lot of us were on amateur teams. That team concept makes boxing not so lonely a sport. You’ve got a common enemy and you’re supporting each other and pushing your teammate to fight a little harder. Your peers are shouting, “It’s up to you!” It’s been scientifically proven you often can do more when you have the support of others. With this league, you’ve got 23 supporters in your corner. You don’t want to let them down and you know you only have to push yourself for three minutes. There’s no reason to be saving your energy. Even if you’re a counterpuncher, you know you only have those three minutes to do your thing, so you better do it.”

As with everything in the sometimes muddled world of boxing, Team Combat has faced challenges in its short, two-year existence. With few commissions willing to sanction its bouts last year, all fights were contested at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, where the Native American commission was willing to give it a try. At the time, there were eight teams, representing New York, L.A., Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas and Las Vegas, but there were no “home games,” as everything but the championship final was held in Connecticut. That final, Mega Brawl I, was contested in Long Beach, California, with the NYC Attitude crowned as TCL’s first champion team by virtue of a come-from-behind 172-165 win over the Atlanta Attack.

This season, TCL added four new teams in Boston, San Antonio, Miami and Orlando to its original eight and, more importantly, received sanctioning approval in nearly every state in which it operates, Nevada and New York being the only holdouts. That change has allowed for what Trout views as a major improvement – city vs. city rivalries.

Carson Crawford (LA Elite) takes a punch from Ariele Davis (Atlanta Attack). Round-to-round, fights can involve different weight classes and men or women. (Photo courtesy Team Combat League)

“Boxing kind of forgot about the hometown hero rivalries,” Trout said. “That’s how boxing grew. This kind of brings that back. We have a lot of Houstonians on our team with local followings, so we love to get those rivalries going (with other cities). If we can grow this, you could see that part going crazy.”

Certainly that’s what happened in Boston on May 2 as the newly added Boston Butchers faced off against the LA Elite. Any fan of the NBA knows well the long history of hate between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers dating back to the 1960s. It runs so deep that one year when the Celtics were about to be eliminated by the Philadelphia 76ers, fans at Boston Garden began to chant “Beat L.A.!” to remind the Sixers they’d rather root for the team about to eliminate the Celtics than support the Lakers.

With the May 2 fight coming down to the final match in a sold-out house at a longtime local boxing venue, the crowd began to chant “Beat L.A.!” at decibel levels that would have done a Celtics crowd proud. Boston was not in position to win that night, but if a young professional named Keno Luna could outpoint Angel Munoz, Boston would leave with a draw, coming back from a three-point deficit with wins in the final three fights. When Luna got the 10-9 win and a 225-225 team draw, the building exploded as if the Cs had just sent the Lakers packing.

“That was WILD!” said New England promoter Jimmy Burchfield, who manages the Boston team and has been running boxing shows for nearly 30 years. “That’s why I got involved with this. I believe this can really become big because of these kinds of rivalries. It’s a showcase for young fighters to learn, because they’ll see every kind of style, and it’s a way for older professionals to stay busy.”

Longtime promoter and former HBO Sports executive Lou DiBella is skeptical about all things after spending so many years in boxing. He has seen people with new ideas come and mostly go, so he wonders if this way of viewing the sport can catch on. Like everything in boxing, he knows it’s a long shot. But it’s also a shot.

“Boxing kind of forgot about the hometown hero rivalries. That’s how boxing grew. This kind of brings that back.”

“A lot of people I trust think it’s compelling,” DiBella said. “It’s a collateral revenue source for some fighters now, especially women whose purses aren’t big. It’s dicey for male fighters unless they simply can’t find work, because it doesn’t help your regular career if you win a one-round fight but it can hurt if you get knocked out. These may be one round, but they’re very real fights.

“One thing that was smart is they have a Combat League line in BoxRec, where everyone goes to research fighters. It gave it immediate legitimacy it might not otherwise have. You look someone up and there’s their amateur record, pro record and TCL record. Smart move.

Ariele Davis absorbs a jab from Amelia Moore during their Atlanta vs. Boston showdown. (Photo by Will Paul/Boston Butchers)

“I don’t know if they can make it or not, but they’re trying something different. Who thought bare-knuckle boxing or slap boxing could become a thing? To a degree, they have. I don’t think Combat League will get the best fighters, but it could maybe develop its own Combat League stars. If the concept can get in front of more eyes and gets into the black, then it’s significant. What they need right now is eyeballs. I think their intentions are good, and though it’s a long-shot endeavor, I respect the fact they’re trying to create something different.”

Barry Hunter, who trained Lamont Peterson to world titles in both the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions, now coaches the D.C. Destroyers and admits he was skeptical when first approached about becoming a part of Team Combat. The concept was out of the norm and he wondered if this was more gimmick than sport.

“I had some doubts, but once I saw it and felt the excitement these guys were producing, I decided to get involved,” Hunter said. “It’s different. You only have those three minutes to get your business done. But that’s part of the excitement.

“For a coach, setting your lineup for those ‘Money Round’ fights is very important. Most of these competitions come down to those fights. You need to be sure you get the fighters you want in your lineup while trying to sort out what the other guy is going to do with his lineup.”

The range of experience among the fighters makes those final pairings even more significant. There are a host of young prospects, but sprinkled in are a number of more seasoned professionals like Rashidi Ellis, a welterweight and ex-WBC International belt holder with a 24-1 record. Not surprisingly, Ellis, in his first season with TCL’s expansion Boston franchise, is 7-0 in Team Combat and having himself quite a time.

“I love the team thing,” said Ellis. “It reminds me of my amateur days when you’d go to a tournament with your team from New England fighting teams from other countries or other areas. You were fighting for yourself but you were also fighting for your team. It’s a different feeling when you’re in the ring and your team is all screaming for you right outside the ropes.

“You want to see your team win. The scores are right up on the screen. You know what you have to do. So far, I’ve done it.”

Middleweight Rashidi Ellis (right) of the Boston Butchers attacks Eslih Owusu of the NYC Attitude. (Photo by Will Paul/Boston Butchers)

Whether Team Combat League will do the same remains to be seen. Challenges remain as it goes through the process of being sanctioned in New York and Nevada. But there are other challenges as well, the darkest coming on April 5 when 27-year-old Ardi Ndembo was brutally knocked out by Nestor Santana in a Team Combat League fight in Miami. Unconscious for several minutes, Ndembo was placed in a medically induced coma and passed away from his injuries three weeks later without regaining consciousness.

Ndembo was a previously undefeated (8-0) young professional while Santana was a young Cuban prospect who is 2-0 with two knockouts. There was no evidence this was anything but the kind of tragic accident that sometimes hits sports’ most dangerous undertaking but it was a reminder that even one round in a boxing ring is three minutes of risk.

Jeff Mayweather, who coached Ndembo as part of the Las Vegas Hustle, said at the time, “Boxing is a sport you grow up loving but there’s so much risk involved. Anyone can lose their life in boxing.”

Despite that tragedy, Mayweather, the uncle of Floyd Mayweather Jr. who once held the IBO junior lightweight title and fought 47 times professionally, retains his belief that there may be a niche for this new way of presenting boxing to a generation of fans who demand quick action and quicker results.

“Once they sent me to see a match between Philadelphia and New York, I really liked it,” Mayweather said. “It’s very energetic every round. You can’t get that in a regular fight. In regular boxing, every round can’t be balls to the wall, but it can be in Team Combat because you got two fresh fighters every three minutes.

“I think it’s here to stay. It’s like we’re inventing a new sport. It’s boxing but it’s different. Fans want action. It’s why they watch. Team Combat has that. If people give it a look, they’ll give it a second look.”

After the completion of the 10-week regular season and playoff rounds, MegaBrawl II will be contested in Commerce, California, on August 1. There had even been talk of the event happening in the U.K., the hope being that it could open up international team possibilities, which makes it clear TCL sees itself as a growth industry creating a niche with a younger audience for one of sports’ oldest professions. Will it work? They believe it will.

“We want to follow the traditions of boxing, but we’re still evolving,” said managing director Kevin Cassidy. “Eventually we want 28 individual franchise owners. We believe we have something. We don’t know yet how big it can become, but kids today want constant action. We realized that. We consider Team Combat League the Twitter version of boxing.”

Team Combat League schedule