Ugly Duckling

Colby Corino vs Jesse Adler, 30 April 2016 (CWF Mid-Atlantic Wrestling)

"Skinny white boy fighting" is a phrase that sounds distinctively Southern to me, but I guess the phenomenon is not limited to the South. Case in point, Colby Corino (son of Steve, 20, 5'7", 161#) comes from Philadelphia, hardly Dixie.

What's true of skinny white boys everywhere, though, is that they fight dirty and would rather lose an eye than give up. "Skinny guys, they never go limp," writes Chuck Palahniuk in Fight Club. "They fight until they're burger." Palahniuk knows, and he's from Oregon, so they're not all Southern, probably not all white either.

Colby calls himself and his compadres "Ugly Ducklings." Skinny punks are hot, or can be when they're fighting. The ones I've known at least. When they're not fighting, they're basically Beavis and Butthead ... or skateboarders. Neat guys, but hard to talk to.

But they put up a mean chokehold and, more often than not, go for the balls. Colby, like most skinny fighters, looks better in motion than any still shots I've seen of him. There's an energy, an aura, a don't-give-a-flyin'-fuck attitude that fascinates me.

Colby has something, don't know what it is, and I can't say where it's going to take him. But I like him. I like the way he throws his shoulders back. I like the way he wears black wrestling trunks. This fight with Jesse is great. (Jesse deserves some attention, too.) There's high flying and shit, but a lot of it is honest to dog wrestling. I'd like to see what Eli Black would do to Colby if he ever got hold of him. That, right there, is something to think about.