by Andrew Morrison | The first ever Restaurant Rumble has now come and gone, but what a rumble it was! The boxing event pitting service industry battlers against one another to raise funds for a new East Van gym was 10 times more entertaining than I thought it would be. Granted, it was the only fight I’d ever watched live, but still, I’d never yelled harder at a sporting event, and I came away very much the happy convert (albeit with a lost voice).

Hats off to all the organizers, to SFU-Woodwards, our fellow sponsors, to Coach Dave, and really to every one involved, especially all the guys and girls who left it all out on the mat for the kids of East Vancouver. The contenders only had three months of training, and yet the intensity and skill that they brought to every single fight was riveting. Thanks also to the production team at Warren Lane Pictures, namely Mike Babiarz and Soren Johnstone, for all their hard work creating the exceptionally engrossing Road To The Restaurant Rumble video series. It was halfway through the first fight that I tapped a very busy Babiarz on the shoulder and asked if we could use some of his photographs from the night. “I’m just shooting video, dude…” he said quickly, before remembering how awesome he was – “but sure, I’ll take some photos for you.” What a guy. Thanks Mike! I’ve left his photos and video stills un-captioned below. Once you’ve clicked through, watch the “live feed” video at the footer, which, at the time of writing, remains playable. It’s on a loop, so if you catch it at the right time, you can watch the bouts in their entirety.

EVERYTHING SEEN IN VANCOUVER