Strangers trade punches and chase thrills at Colombia’s pop-up fights

In a park on the outskirts of Colombia’s capital, Santiago Abril set up a mat made with interlocking rubber panels and assembled an octagonal structure resembling a mixed martial arts cage.

The portable ring, made of rubber and plastic, serves as the stage for the improvised boxing matches that Abril has organized for months at parks in Bogota, mostly without official permits.

Dozens of young men and women gather on weekends for Abril’s pop-up fights, where strangers face off without the lengthy preparations required for regular boxing matches. Some want to test their boxing skills. Others are looking for a new thrill.

Women pay around $5 to compete, while men pay $15. Organizers provide boxing gloves but no headgear. Cash prizes of around $100 are given to those who can win two or three fights in a row in hastily organized tournaments.

For Ingrid Prieto, a 29-year-old who recently participated in a fight, boxing is a form of therapy.

“When I was young, I used to get in a lot of fights, so I began to practice taekwondo,” she said, adding that contact sports have helped her to channel her emotions.

Eliber Parra García, 27, repairs mobile phones for a living. He said he joined the pop-up fights to experience what it feels like to be a professional boxer, and also for the adrenaline that comes with fighting and the chance to make some money. “I have an orange belt in judo,” Parra García said. “But I know very little about boxing.”

Bogota’s municipal government told the Associated Press that the fights require permits and a plan for dealing with emergencies that must be submitted to authorities.

Police have asked Abril to dismantle his octagon in several parks around the city, after failing to present a permit.

Abril said participants are asked to sign a consent form stating they are in good health before fighting. He also said obtaining a permit to organize boxing matches is difficult because the sport is “monopolized” by promoters.

Abril’s fights are limited to two rounds lasting 90 seconds each. Participants are sorted into weight categories and given gloves that are heavier than those used by professionals.

“The gloves are so heavy that the boxers get tired faster, and that means they will not throw such hard punches,” said Abril, who has a degree in physical education. He said that sometimes there are bloody noses or burst lips in his fights, but that “no one has had their cheekbones broken.”

Despite the lack of permits, and being chased from parks by police, Abril says interest in his street fights is growing. He promotes them on social media under the nickname King Abril and runs a YouTube account with 131,000 subscribers.

“We started doing this on streets, on the pavement,” Abril said. “Now we have a cage, gloves and a mat.”

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