Sports in Bangladesh and Dhaka are mostly focused on two things. It's either Cricket, or football. When I found out I was going to do a photographic story about boxing, many of my fellow students from Dhaka told me it was going to be impossible or next to impossible, as boxing is a very uncommon and not a popular sport in Bangladesh. Coming from Norway, where there are about 3 boxing clubs in each city, I found it quite hard to believe that there were no boxing clubs in a city which hosts an unknown amount of people. Being listed over 10 million, but they don't have the correct count.

So after a bit of searching, and a lot of help from one of my fellow students, I got in contact with a boxing coach telling us that boxing did indeed take place in Bangladesh, but at the moment they had no place to practice. He told us that they were going to practice between two buildings in the upcoming days, and I was welcome to join them and take photographs.

After one hour of traveling we finally met up. I was quite impressed when I saw the area they were practicing on. After shooting for some minutes, I noticed the crowd around us. A lot of people were gathered to watch.

They told me later that boxing in a open place like that would get some spectators, but having a white boy jumping around two boxers would get even more spectators. So whether they were watching me or the fighting, I was unsure of.

I spent two days with the boxers trying to take as many photographs as possible, and tried to get as close as I could. Sometimes I felt I were going to take a hit or two in the stomach.

I have always been interested in boxing as a watching sport and found it more than interesting, but being able to be this close and taking photographs of the motions of boxing, I got quite the different view on the subject. I was easily impressed by the movements of the boxers during a one on one fight.

I later described the experience as a macho ballet for my teacher, but I am not sure if he quite understood what I was saying.

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