With the song “Youth Gone Wild” by Skid Row blaring in the background, cocktail waitresses serving rounds of beer and the usual haze of cigarette smoke hanging in the air, barroom boxing at Stix rounded up its weekly boxers and audience members for the fifth time Tuesday night.

Boxing fever seems to be running rampant again in Charleston as the attendance and participation to the weekly featured main event has increased and is expected to inch back up to the high attendance rates seen during the opening weeks.

“It was really popular in the beginning, then it died down,” said Monica Cameron, a senior business management major and Stix employee. “But it really has picked up this week because it is almost the end.”

Regardless of the setting being in a bar, there is nothing out of the ordinary taking place at Stix because of this temporary sporting event.

“Nothing major has happened. If we see something we kick them out,” said Jamie Skraba, a senior speech communication major. “We’ve never had anything break out after a fight.”

Organization is the key to the fights staying in the ring and not continuing on the floor, said Debbie McMahon, manager of Stix. But that is what Stix is known for.

“In the beginning people thought that it was going to be almost like ultimate fighting,” said McMahon. “But it’s not like WWF.”

“It quiets down when the fights start,” said McMahon. “Because they enjoy watching it.”

There is a respected silence that falls on the bar with the start of each fight. The only noise produced comes from the sporadic punches and cheers which cut through the smoke emphasized over the ring from the spotlights.

Skraba, who has worked as a cocktail waitress at Stix every Tuesday night for the past five weeks, thinks the attentive eyes and ears of the fans can be attributed to people simply wanting to see what they paid for.

“That’s why people come – to see the fights,” said Skraba. “They want to hear the names announced, the weight differences and catch the beginning of every fight.”

Trevor Hinkle, a sophomore speech communication major, pulled himself up into the ring to face his opponent Ken Coffee, 25, of Ashmore, in the blue corner before the fourth fight of the night.

Hinkle, undefeated overall according to his father, Jim Hinkle of Olney, was wearing the “Golden Gloves” of 1999 from both Indiana and Illinois on his hands when the first bell rang. He was able to step out of the ring with his title untarnished before the end of the second round.

“I just go in and try to do what I want to do,” Hinkle said. ” I don’t think about it until the bell rings.”