I recently decided to travel to Williamson West Virginia to catch one of the biggest sporting events to ever happen around these parts, The Redneck Brawl.
The Redneck Brawl was highly anticipated online, with competitors calling each other out making your momma jokes, and talking about chewing skoal.
This is event should’ve been a great event and many ways it was. But, it was possible marred by the venue at which it was held at, the Williamson Field house.
In this article I want to share my experience with trying to get inside to see the event.
Share This!
What is the Redneck Brawl?
The Redneck Brawl was an event held on March 4th, 2023 which sought competitors from Eastern Kentucky to take on West Virginia in a 3-Round 1-Minute based boxing match. The boxers wore 16-ounce gloves and had no head gear.
What was intriguing about the Redneck Brawl was seeing all the fighters calling each other out and making jokes. It was very lack of a better word “Redneck” Hench way it was called the Redneck Brawl.
We had Weedeaters fighting Lawnmowers, mullets, and people fighting in jeans. This was truly a spectacularly event which grabbed a lot of attention from us mountain folks.
Beer, Skoal, and fighting.
The Redneck brawl cost $20 for a general admission tickets at the Williamson, West Virginia Field House. You could also purchase to watch the fight online with a PPV streaming service.
The Redneck Brawl sold too many tickets, and the Venue was TOO small
Turns out the Redneck Brawl was widely successful. Honestly it was too successful not that is a BAD thing but it was a VERY bad thing considering where it was held.
The Williamson Field house didn’t even come close to being able to hold the amount of people that showed up. I was told while standing in-line at 6:30 P.M. EST that the Field House only could fit 2800 people.
I was also told that the event sold over 4,000 tickets.
The number just don’t add up. This is where you can start seeing the problem.
I for one thought I was arriving in plenty of time to see the event start from finish. Events started at 7 and I had gotten there 30 minutes early.
Arriving at the destination I was like well the door must not be opened yet but we will get right in, I was completely wrong.
Turns out I missed meeting all the celebrities, and events like the mullet contest because I was still standing outside in the cold.
Williamson Field House Was the wrong choice
After standing outside for 1hr and 30 Minutes I guess the event manager decided to just let people in without scanning tickets and let a horde of people swarm in and it was basically get to where you can.
I’m telling you right now my tickets was 100% not scanned and I basically paid for the worst place to sit in the entire building. Had I known going into this is what my experience was going to be like I would’ve much rather had just ordered the PPV online.
Not only was I miserable from standing and waiting for over a hour. I couldn’t hear anything the announcers where saying.
Quite literally I had no idea who was fighting all I could understand is people from WV was in the red corner, and Kentucky was in the Blue corner.
I believe the event was great, but the Field House among the terrible wait time really marred my experience with the whole thing.
How Was the Fights at the Redneck Brawl
At least I could see the boxing matches taking place although I never knew who was up and fighting as I couldn’t hear the names.
The fights are about what you expected, sloppy, but entertaining.
Most of the fighters was just done after 1-Round. The lack of cardio was showing through to about 80% or more of the competitors.
Everyone went in swinging with haymakers, some landed, some didn’t. All in all it was entertaining to watch complete amateurs from the mountains swinging high makers.
I could see some talent in some of the fighters but mostly it was a slug-fest in the 1st Round and the next 2 was both sucking wind.
You could also see some of the corner people trying to show their competitor how to throw a jab, cross, and a hook. As their corners was just going in trying to throw anything and it wasn’t working. The corner crew really earned their paycheck.
Seeing Lawnmower from Kentucky win against Weed eater from West Virginia after their hilarious videos was great.
Yes, this was some of their boxing names.
Jeremy Kirk Represented Salyersville, Kentucky and Won
We did have a competitor from Magoffin County Jeremy Kirk. For his boxing name he was going against a guy driving a Ford in WV, so he was now known as Mr. Chevy.
Competitors of they won their bout was granted $500 and a crown to wear off the stage.
Jeremy (Mr. Chevy) did in fact win his match in a decision that went to the judges!
Congrats Jeremy Kirk of Salyersville, Kentucky!
The Redneck Brawl Spectator Experience: Conclusion
I would’ve loved to have met people like Catfish Cooley and some of the other announcers. What seemed like I was arriving early to an event turned out I had to stand outside for 1HR and 30 minutes to even make it into the arena.
The Redneck Brawl was right up my alley for watching people from my hometown and surrounding counties take on other rednecks on the other side of the mountain. It was too bad that I didn’t have a pleasant experience because of where it was held.
Even the Fire Marshall had to close the building down from letting more people in because it became a hazard. I was glad I went but I wanted to be able to move around, enjoy food and drinks but that was all taking away because of the size of the arena.
With the lack of up to date acoustics for such an event made it to where I never heard the announcers say much of anything.
The Redneck Brawl from this experience was better off watching and listening from the comfort of your own home or a watch party somewhere in Salyersville Kentucky.
I don’t know if I will attend another one of these events, especially if it is held at the field house again. But, I do look forward to seeing Eastern KY and West Virginia go at each other again in the future. This time probably order it myself and have a watch party instead of making a trip.
As always be sure to follow me over on Twitter – @thesmango for news on Kentucky, Sports, and more.
If you would like to have your business or community event promoted, be sure to check out our about page and learn how to contact us directly!
About Author
