Specific products and preferences mark the social stratification of society to such a degree that clear indicators of one’s place in society are present in a person’s purchasing habits and sporting tendencies. It was once explained to me by a high school teacher of mine that you could distinguish an upper class person because they drink scotch or cognac and like sports like polo; a middle class person (in the sense I always learned it, middle class does not mean “the working man,” but rather people with jobs that make between $100,000 and $250,000) because they preferred wine and golf; and upper-lower class people, e.g. blue collar workers, because they have a predilection towards beers and baseball. And while this is entirely stereotypical, it seems to hold true in some cases, enough at least to perpetuate the stereotype. However, tonight I attended a boxing match, and it dawned on me that boxing is the ultimate indicator of social duress in American society.

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