Via WaPo:
The first time Kendrick Ball saw Tamerlan, at a fight in Lowell three or four years ago, the boxer stood out in a way that could get someone hurt. “He had on these tight jeans and long trench coat, and a white shirt unbuttoned halfway down, and silver boots,” said Ball, who runs a boxing club in Worcester. “I thought, either he’s going to get picked on or he’s a tough . . .”
Ball watched Tamerlan box and decided it was the latter. He invited Tamerlan to spar at his club. Tamerlan accepted, but when he arrived to fight, he had no trainer and none of the gear boxers wear to protect sensitive parts.
“No headgear, no mouthpiece and no cup,” Ball said. When he offered to let Tamerlan borrow some, “He said, ‘No, no, no. I don’t need that stuff. I’m good.’ ”
Tamerlan was an impressive fighter with a peculiar style: He kept his hands at his sides rather than up near his face to protect it. “He was cocky,” Ball said. Even pitted against a top-ranked fighter, Tamerlan refused to don protective gear until after he was spitting up blood and holding his side.
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