Back Yards And Bloody Noses

Robert Samuels: A crowd of hundreds filters into a neighbor's backyard expecting to see something brutal: bloodied noses and punched-out teeth, blackened eyes and broken jaws, as stardom-hungry pugilists pummel each other on a manicured lawn.



A man in a red mohawk referees the action inside a 12-foot-square ring, enforcing the two explicit rules: No hits to the back of the head. No jabs to the testicles.



When the winner celebrates, a third rule becomes clear: Know where the phone cameras are. For although a crowd of 200 watches this day, hundreds of thousands more might watch on a blurry video on the Internet, where celebrity is democratic and pain can lead to fame.