England's Posh House of Pow

If some fights, such as last week's championship match between Sugar Ramos and Carlos Ortiz in Mexico City (page 26), are staged in circumstances of questionable gentility, there are others where the elegance is astonishing. Here are the toniest boxing spectators in the world. Once every fortnight between September and June the London gentlemen shown on these pages emerge in dinner jackets from their polished Bentleys and Rolls-Royces (below) and move under their club canopy into the world's most splendid boxing arena. Urbanely, they enjoy a leisurely dinner, champagne, brandy and cigars and (following pages) the fisticuffs.

The blue haze of cigar smoke fills the Napoleon Room, where club members and—quite rarely—their ladies gather after dinner under a canopy of crystal for brandy or champagne and the bouts. In this fin de si√®cle splendor the gentlemen murmur their bets, and they never, never—well, hardly ever—cheer during rounds.

This move is traditional during introductions all around, and so is the reserved reception by the club members.

EIGHT PHOTOS

JESSE ALEXANDER AND JERRY COOKE