59 - Intermediate English - La Velada del Año 4 - Our thoughts as two Americans about Streamers who box

  Intermediate English Podcast, home  intermediate English. 

On occasion, we like to pick a topic that is of the moment in the Spanish speaking world.  it, you know, mostly in English.  During the conversation, we will shed light on any references or expressions that we use in English. You know, to help you with your English.  

Hey, Greg, what does it mean to shed light on something? 

Oh, I'm so glad you asked. Shed light on means like iluminar or aclarar.  And the word shed by itself means something that comes off of something else. Like a snake will shed its skin or a dog will shed its fur when it's hot in the summertime.  And what is our topic of 

the moment, Gabe?  So today we were going to talk about, uh, La velada cuatro, um, and which is a, uh, boxing and wrestling, uh, competition between, uh, famous, uh, internet Uh, streamers and influencers, uh, that, uh, takes place in, in Spain and, uh, and actually in a stadium where you've, you've actually been there.

Haven't you?  Oh, that's right. 

The, the Bernabeu, uh, stadium in Madrid,  uh, is a place that I went, uh, once in 2016 and I went into the museum down below and walked around on the turf. Uh, it was fantastic.  I, you know, in researching this, I noticed some similarities to American culture, namely I thought about Gabe, Jake Paul, that  he has decided to become a boxer after being famous on a streaming service like YouTube. 

So I went back and did a little digging and it turns out that on YouTube back in the 2010s,  something very similar to this velada event.  Uh, was happening, uh, in, in the United States.  

Okay. How was it similar? What, what was it?  

Well, it was prominent, uh, personalities,  uh, on YouTube who were then, uh, fighting each other. 

So it's like the worst of humanity or human impulses that we have. We want to celebrity five people, um, and then we want to see people fight. So this is, uh, This is combining those two things. Okay. Well, that makes sense. And, um, I guess that's it. Oh, 

go ahead. Now, does this seem very strange to you that somebody who's good, for example, at playing video games on the internet,  does it make sense to you that they would then  fight somebody else?

I mean, you and I have practiced boxing plenty of times together  and you know, if you get tired after like 30 seconds, it's not.  It's not a natural changeover from playing video games to boxing.  

No, um, it's, it's not. So, it's a strange thing that you would take people who were not necessarily athletes and, and have them do something that is extremely challenging physically.

Um, Now, um, when, you know, when I watched, uh,   La Velada, um, you know, they were wearing some very, uh, conservative headgear that was designed to keep them from breaking each other's noses. Right. Um, and, um. I'm sorry, 

you used, you used the word headgear, that's, that's a good, that's a good word to highlight.

Headgear is like casco a little bit, I suppose. 

Right, your headgear is technically anything you wear on your head, um, but, but in, in boxing, uh,  headgear is a protective padded helmet or hat that you wear to protect your face primarily, uh, and protect your head. 

I noticed that they had, um, padding. Padding is like la almohadita, the little The little cushion or pillow, uh, they had it on the back of the head too so that if somebody, I believe you call it a rabbit punch when someone hits you in the back of the head, uh, if they hit you in the back of the head, your head would be protected. 

Right. Which I think is very wise that they would, Uh, that they would allow these people to, to wearing very protective gear and boxing is not nearly as dangerous as not wearing protective gear.  When, certainly when I used to, uh, box with my karate student friends, um, you know, we would wear headgear that had a, a face shield, like when I school that over the face.

Um, And, uh,  and, you know, it allows you to, to hit each other pretty hard without doing grievous injury to each other. Because on the other hand, um, when I was in high school, I very clearly remember some of my karate buddies. Uh, they were sparring, which is, uh, just, you know, when you're fighting in a controlled way.

Um, and they were sparring, doing karate and one of them kicked the other one in the face and knocked his tooth out. Oh my goodness. 

And that, and that, I'm sorry. That mirrors my experience too. I, um, I did some sparring with my son Lucas when he was studying, uh, martial arts and particularly boxing. And we would agree to spar with full headgear and pads on. 

And, uh, he got me right in the nose one time with, um, 18 ounce gloves.  Which are the, the, the more protective size gloves. And he still, as we would say in English, he rang my bell  . Uh, I saw stars. I saw little birdies, uh, you know, flying around my head and I thought that my nose, uh, was gonna bleed. I thought that blood was gonna come from my nose, but it didn't.

So I was very glad about that. And I think Gabe, that was the day that I retired from, uh, sparring Lucas. I, I think that might been my last.  

Well, it sounds like, you know, a wise thing. There's a famous movie. There's a famous movie where Morgan Freeman, that actor says, every biter thinks he's got one more fight left. 

And he was talking about how that's a mistake. Um, so, um, but the, I watched, for example, Yo Soy Plex fight against a  streamer named El Mariana. Um, and, um, you know, they both looked like they had trained for the event. They were not gasping for breath. Um, one of them was, you know, significantly more athletic looking than the other one.

Um, you know, Yo Soy Plex looked like he was, you know, Um, probably lifts weights or, you know, does heavy exercising. Um, but, uh, you know, both of these guys are people who play video games while other people watch. Um, so the, that's a very interesting concept. Um, 

Hey, you know, that's a, that's a good point that you're making.

We say in English. Uh, that you watch someone play video games, or that you watch TV, because I know in Spanish we use a lot of ve or ver with that construct. So this is an example of where you would absolutely use the word watch and not, for example, the word see or the word look. You watch someone video streaming, or you watch someone on Twitch.

Uh, you don't see them and you don't look at them, that, that doesn't sound accurate to me. It doesn't sound normal.  

Yeah, it's, I mean, it really is strange how certain words,  they just don't get used for certain concepts and we don't see the TV. You can see the TV. Like if you look through the window of a car and see that there's a TV in the backseat.

Exactly.  But little children, yeah. 

Little 

children watching it. Yeah. But. Yeah. Yeah. But you, but if you're, if you're observing what the program that is on television, you're watching the program, you're not seeing it, uh, or looking at it. There are a few groups, people that will say, look at, I was looking at the TV.

Um.  Um, watch by far as the most common. So, 

um, yeah, if you're say you're looking at TV, you're not doing anything very specific. Um, you know, you're just kind of bored and almost like thumbing through tick tock. You know, that's kind of like looking at tick tock, but if you're watching tick tock, that's, you know, your favorite.

Uh, TikToker, uh, giving you a great recipe or teaching you how to change, uh, out the muffler on a 78 Camaro or, you know, whatever it is.  

Well, it's interesting because the, the influencers and streamers that I know best are the ones that my daughter, who is now 19, um, That she has grown up watching, um, and they're all people that I feel a lot of affection for,  um, she, you know, they're people that I really feel they feel like a friend, uh, because they're funny and they're interesting and, um, they introduce, uh, Ella and me to, um,  they introduce us to new video games, for example, um, and then a lot of times there's a lot of laughter.

So I don't know that I would want to see them punch each other. 

Peace. Yeah, I care, I care about both of you. I'm saying I, I like, I like Jack Septic and I like Mark Applier, and I don't wanna see Jack Septic punch Markaplier, uh, what if they hurt each other? Um, 

yeah. And I, I, I go back a little bit farther than you because. Uh, Lucas is older than Ella, but I remember Stampy Long Nose,  uh, and I remember Sugar Conroy.

I don't know if these names are familiar to our audience, but they played, um,  I think Mario and Minecraft, uh, heavily, heavily, you know, 10 years ago, 12 years ago on the streaming services. Maybe it was just YouTube at the time, but, uh, I can't. Imagine in my mind's eye, my mind's eye is my imagination. I can't, I cannot imagine in my mind's eye,  um, watching Stampy Longnose fight against Shura Conroy.

That, that makes no sense to me.  But I noticed in watching, uh, in watching footage of this, they filled up the stadium. I mean,  thousands and thousands of people were there. 

Yeah, this Ibai Llanos guy is obviously a genius. He's, he's the number one, uh, internet celebrity, uh, in Spain. Um, and he, he's the one that came up with this idea of, uh, La Velada.

And, uh, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And in this case, it's being shown on Twitch. Uh, Uh, at least in live time and I guess what's different between twitch and youtube Is that twitch they really specialize in live streams like you're watching it happen right now Um, which is sort of the essence of sports.

You generally want to see the game when it's happening Uh, if you really care about the game, you don't want to wait and watch a recap Um, whereas youtube I guess is different  

So, we're going 

to take 

a quick break and when we come back,  I'm going to answer the question was  last year's fight between the two rivers, right?

Cause there's a rivers from,  from Spain and then there's a rivers from Mexico. What was my opinion of that fight? And then Gabe is going to cross into a deeper topic, which is the question, are e sports  A sport.  To hear the rest of the episode, please visit www. patreon. com forward slash NoTerrindasPodcast. 

Okay. So last year in La Velada del Año Tres, uh, two young ladies, uh, stepped into the ring,  one from Spain and one from Mexico. And forgive me that I'm not up on their names. They both had the name Rivers in their, in their moniker, moniker means name.  Gabe the, uh, the Spaniard, uh, she got the decision,  Uh, the Mexican fighter was more aggressive.

Uh, she went after the Spanish fighter, uh, more often and more seconds per round, but, um, but they didn't lift up her hand, uh, at the end. I was very sad to see that. 

Right. So Marina Rivers, um, beat, uh, Sammy Rivers or Sammy, uh, and by a split decision and of course a split decision. Ah, yeah. is, is when, uh, the judges who are judging the fight do not all agree on the winner. 

Gabe, to your, to your knowledge, are there always three judges or are there sometimes five  as a split decision, always two against one?  

Well, I, I think it, yeah, it just takes one, uh, obviously two, two are typically going to be, uh, together and then one is going to be the odd person out that is, that makes it split.

But you've never 

heard of three against two. Like that's not a thing. There, there's no five judge boxing. Okay.  All right. So the last question I'd like to ask you, Gabe, because this is something that, that you can talk about. Okay. In your own experience, you have a house  with people in it that do this business. 

Are eSports 

an actual sport? So  eSports are competitive video games, uh, typically for a cash prize, um, which means you can win money if you win whatever the competition is. Um, And I, my son in law, my daughter recently got married and my son in law is a former competitive video game player and he, he plays a, one of the games that is most widely, uh, played, uh, in competitively that is not a shooting game.

It's called Super Smash Brothers Melee. And it's a fighting game and it's kind of a madcap,  uh, fighting game.  Madcap. What is madcap? I mean, it means kind of silly or not serious. It's not, it doesn't try to be realistic, um, more than anything in the focuses on fun and action. Um, But a cyber athlete, obviously an athlete or not let that is is someone who typically in our language or our culture, we would think of them as someone that practices sports.

And if someone has an athletic body, that means they're not fat, and they look strong, and they look capable, right?  

Yeah, I would agree with that. I remember one year a, uh, a guy won the master's golf tournament, uh, and he had a big belly, uh, and he was not, you know, he couldn't have run from, you know, here to the clubhouse and back. 

Um, that would have winded him like it would have winded me.  Um, however,  He won the Masters, and so there was a bit of debate in the press, uh, is golf a sport, right? Are golfers athletes? Because if this guy could win,  how can we say that, uh, they're athletic? So, yeah, I remember, I'm familiar with, uh, with this debate.

Please continue. 

Well then you have a cyber athlete and a cyber athlete is someone who plays a video game competitively and it's a way that they make money doing that. Some of them are professionals and and that's all that's the way they make all of their money is through sponsorship where someone says hey if you'll you know advertise our brand uh we will sponsor you and then they make money of course if they win.

whatever tournament and some of the tournaments pay, you know, over a million dollars to the winning team or winner. Um, and these, these tournaments are often televised or in the sense that they are streamed, you know, often on Twitch. Um,  so, but, but it does become, you know, a question is, It is eSports a sport.

And actually there have been, well 

before, before you answer that, forgive me. Um, let's talk about sponsor, which is gonna be a patro  and a tournament. A tournament is a word that you use a couple of times and that's a to.  So, um, when someone sponsors you, right, they're giving you money to support you as you.

Um, go and compete with, uh, with these other players,  

right? And,  you know, it's, it's interesting because there have even been some visas given, um, for, uh, for cyber athletes and the, the kinds of visas that are given so that a person can travel into another company, country legally, um,  The, the visas that some of these cyber athletes were given are the kind of visas that are reserved for athletes, like traveling Olympic athletes, for example, like 

people of exceptional ability or, or something like that.

Right. And so it, it has raised some questions because there, there has even been talk about putting e sports in the Olympics. Wow. Wow. And. Yeah, and so there's sort of two sides. So the, the general concept is that some say a sport involves anything where you're using your body in a skillful way, um, and using your mind, you know, in connection with that.

And I hear my son in law practicing and I can hear him doing these. Specific button presses as he's practicing almost almost like a kata and it sounds like he's repeating, you know, he's doing a drill over and over and he's, he's definitely using his body. He's just using his, his fingers. Um, So it's just, it does get, the line gets a little bit blurry.

It's not clear because the, the sport that came to mind for me was bowling.  Bowling takes a tremendous amount of skill and it, and it's very much considered a sport, um,  I guess kind of like darts is, but it's more popular than darts. Um, the, uh, but you don't have to be in particularly great physical condition to be a bowler. 

No, I would imagine that there are going to be some ligaments or tendons or muscles,  uh, on your frame, particularly your shoulder, your hip  that are going to get repetitive stress.  But other than that,  uh, you're, you're not. Gonna get winded. Winded means that you're breathing heavily. Uh, you're not gonna get winded bowling or throwing darts, which are dardos in Spanish. 

Um, so my students like to ask me, I teach, uh, sixth graders and they like to pick arguments with each other. They like to debate each other and they will say,  um, so and so, so and so is like a fulano, you know, hey guy, uh, so and so, um, is girls cheerleading a sport like las puristas?  Is that a sport? And, you know, whatever the other person says, they then can distract. 

from my lesson by talking about, uh, if something is, you know, as much of a sport as playing football or baseball or basketball, which I would say, say are the three big sports that these kids are playing.  

Well, and it, I think it.  People are generally going to argue that anything that is difficult physically, um, is an athletic activity.

Um, you know,  karate is not supposed to be a sport, um, but it has become a sport and there are a lot of sports aspects to karate and, uh, the Korean version. 

Now 

that 

surprises me. That surprises me that you say that. Why is karate not a sport? supposed to be a sport.  

Well, karate was developed primarily just as a system of self defense that was married together with a philosophy of living, um, where you were constantly striving to, uh, improve yourself and be a helpful presence to others.

Um, and, uh, and of course it's, it is.  A lot of, a lot of schools, uh, if we look at Japan, for example, the schools have karate teams and those karate teams have competitions. And so then if you look at their practice, their practice has become more like a sports practice, like say wrestling, Greco Roman wrestling practice, then a karate.

class because the emphasis is on teaching these students how to score points so that they can win the competition, which is, um, again, the, the, the thing is any, anyone who, who does a physical activity, I, I would argue if they do it Well, that I'm going to call that person an athlete. They're going to I'm going to say, well, he's very athletic.

Um, but it athletic can also mean just people who are good at sports. I had a very close friend growing up and, you know, there was nothing particularly Uh, special about the way his body looked. Um, he wasn't really his Willie. That wasn't it? Willie. Yeah. Willie wasn't particularly strong looking, but my goodness, he could just play any game, any sport.

Uh, he could throw a ball much farther than I could. He could throw a ball much faster. You know, he could play soccer. Uh, he could hit a ball better than I could in baseball.  Um, he was just very, very athletic. He didn't, didn't have to think about it. 

He went on to play a first base for the Padres and  San Diego Padres.

Uh, no, no.  

Different Willie. 

Yeah.  A lot of Willie's, uh, not the same one.  

So is e sports then your, your son in law is, is working his fingers and his thumbs. He's practicing his maneuvers to get muscle memory. Like I would on a, on a speed bag or a punching bag.  Is it a sport?  

Well, the, the general  consensus is that it's a mind sport, um, and that you're using the same sort of elements of your, of the mental game that you would if you were playing football or baseball.

Um. Um. Um.  It becomes a stretch to argue that it's a sport because it doesn't require, uh, any, you know, any special physical ability or, or training in terms of, uh, of the traditional sense. And so by that, uh, by that You know, same logic, we would probably have to say that darts, you know, is, is not a sport.

Uh, it may be more of a mind sport or a skill sport, um, and, and arguably maybe, uh, maybe bowling. Um,  So let me ask you 

this, because you, you know a lot more about,  okay, you know a lot more about boxing than I do. You have a strong history with martial arts in general.  This business of la velada, of getting people to fight. 

Uh, in, in the ring like this, who are not professional athletes, is it good for boxing?  

Obviously what they're doing, I would call it in some cases, boxing like, or, or wrestling like, um, um, and, and, uh, And, you know, anything that is going to get people up out of their chair and, and practicing boxing to me is going to be good for boxing as long as they're, you know, as long as they're not hurting each, uh, each other or making, uh, what we would call making a mockery of the sport.

So what does that mean? Mockery, making a mockery. 

So, and, and, you know, some, some of these individuals you could just really tell did not need to be in the ring, um, but some of them look like they really were trying to to practice, uh, the techniques and you could see they were really trying to, uh, but you know, the fact that there are not knockouts, you know, and that it's winning by points, you know, shows that it does take quite a bit of practice to become, uh. 

of, of dominating someone in, in boxing. So, um, that is certainly something I'm not capable of, uh, and never, never have been.  

You're too modest. You're too modest. Uh, I'm gonna, I'm going to come down on the side of agreeing with you that, um, that it's good for the sport because the argument that I read, uh, against it is that, you know, these people aren't, Watching real boxers are not spending their money or their time or their effort watching professional boxers. 

Um, but my thought on that is,  uh, well, it's not an either or. They were either going to do nothing related to boxing or they were going to watch this. And, uh, from what I've read of another commentator, Spaniards are not Famous boxers. I can't think of of any boxers in Spain, for example, that are super famous. 

Eso this may raise the profile of some, uh, competitions in boxing in Spain and Spain might have better what we'd call pugilism in the future.  

Well, and the audience members were just riveted, uh, weren't they? They were just, 

what does that mean? Riveted?  

They were riveted. They were paying very close attention and very interested in what was happening.

Se fijaban, 

yes. Se fijaban mucho. Mm hmm. 

Yeah. So, you know, it's very clear that it's not. Well, this is boxing, so it's boring. And I guess it's the, the individuals that you have this affinity for that you care about, you know, seeing them fight kind of like seeing your, you know, your nephew box, I guess.

Somebody that you know really well. Yeah.  

But it is a, it is a far cry from, from professional or even amateur boxing, uh, in, in my experience.  And 

what's a far cry?  

If something is a far cry from something that means it is very, very different than something. So  by me saying this, this, uh, bailada boxing is a far cry from amateur boxing.

It means it is. It is really not very much like real amateur boxing in the sense of select. Quality of the fighting. So 

like a bean burrito from Taco Bell is a far cry from a torta mexicana, for example.  

Exactly. If you, you know, if you're in Oaxaca and you're getting a torta, that's a far cry from a burrito from Taco Bell.

You got it. 

I'll take two.