Thanks to all who requested "end of story" info. I thought I would post an Epilogue of sorts to post what worked and what didn't in our wives rules for the fight. First the good news:
WHAT WORKED:
1 - Making them take off an item of clothing if they were knocked down. It was obviously very humiliating for the loser, and a thrill for her opponent as she would usually dance around waiving it overhead and taunt them with it.
2 - Two-minute rounds followed by two minutes of rest. Amateurs can't fight for much longer than this, and the extra break helped them recover so they started each new round fresh.
3 - Slow count (3 seconds between numbers) for knockdowns. Difficult to say why, but it just worked.
4 - Allowing hair pulling in what was essentially a boxing match. I'm definitely a member of the "hairpulling in catfights is mandatory" club.
5 - Allowing the husbands to stop the fight. There are just too many unknowns in fighting till the winner says it's over or to a KO.
6 - Allowing the use of wrestling holds and using the ring ropes. If the account of how the fight went down doesn't convince you it's sexier this way, then nothing will.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
1 - Stopping the fight if it went to the ground. We did this because we both felt the ground game, particularly among amateurs, was boring. So, we thought if we kept them up and punching each other it would be more exciting. What happened, however, was that the fighters soon learned that if they were in a jam, if they took the fight to the ground they would get a second chance. Dick and I both spent a lot of time just pulling them apart and standing them up. I still think ground 'n pound is boring, but our solution didn't work and I don't have a recommendation on how to solve the problem.
2 - The gloves has been mentioned, but I still haven't found any information on "Fitestar" gloves. Dick got the pair Nancy used on Sunday, and his cell phone goes direct to voicemail (I don't think he's answering or returning my calls). I've searched everything from "illegal MMA gloves" to "substitute brass knuckles" and haven't turned up a clue. Admittedly I'm about as novice as you can get in this sport, but I'm a long time catfight lover and I'd never heard of anything like this before. Still asking if anyone has anything to contribute, used or heard of these type of gloves, etc.
3 - Letting the husbands alternate as referee. How else do you keep it private? But the reality was that we each went out of our way not to show favoritism to our wife, to the point that our wives had a fairer fight if the other husband was referee. For instance, there were several times that a girl received a wicked punch which would probably have knocked her down. However, she was already off balance due to being pushed, etc., and so we never counted it as a knockdown, just a "slip."
4 - Thinking we could keep this fight private. Letting Hector tape their hands was a big mistake. Now not only do most people at the gym know they fought, they know most of the details. Problem is several people who work with Nancy are members of the gym, and Nancy is afraid of the consequences as her place of work is very...what's a good word...stodgy! They don't want bad publicity from anyone. Hopefully as Nancy has two weeks of vacation before she has to go back things will have blown over. Nancy has an extra $11,000 to spend, but if it cost her job it wasn't worth it, and she's worried about it.
