Washington City Paper: Contents for Mar. 24

Bad Guys
Once Were Weekend Warriors

Cover Story

Troy “Headhunter” Huff is in a bad mood.

He's holed up in a windowless, cinder-block room at the ABC Sports Complex, a dank warehouse gymnasium in a Springfield industrial park. Huff and other amateur fighters have gathered here for the finals of the Northern Virginia Toughman contest, a sort of human version of cockfighting: brawl ers with gloves instead of roosters with steel spurs.

But the spectacle has been delayed for nearly an hour.

Pacing in a corner, Huff, 24, sports a puke-green bathrobe over his battle uniform: piña-colada-colored shorts, black socks, and soiled sneakers. At 6-foot-6 and 300-pounds-plus, he is the biggest Toughman in the building. However, it is obvious that he developed his bulky physique—a Soft Taco Supreme with extra beef—in places besides training gyms. He resembles less a battle-ready warrior than a pissed-off couch potato confronting an empty refrigerator.

Outside Headhunter's lair, the Sunday evening crowd gets restless as event organizers await tardy contestants. Several winners of preliminary bouts two nights before have phoned in cancellations, complaining of soreness or exhaustion; others haven't even bothered to call, opting to lick their wounds in silence. Huff is tired of dallying for these cream-puff no shows, who obviously weren't so tough after all.

It's already proven a frustrating weekend for Headhunter.... Continued

Issue of Mar. 24 - 30, 1995

News and Features

Bad Guys
Once Were Weekend Warriors
Cover Story By Eddie Dean
Bad Guys
Jailhouse Shock
Cover Story By Claudia J. Rosenbaum
In Full Bloom
The City By Dave Nuttycombe
Meat Cleavers
Curing Capitol Hill of Its Taste for Blood Proves Difficult
The City By Matt Labash
Let the Balkanization Begin
The City By Dave Nuttycombe
Caveat Emptor
The District Invites Fraud by Suspending Enforcement of Its Consumer Protection Laws
The City By Bill Gifford
Public-Radio Gaga
The Mail By Mark Krikorian
Airing Our Differences
The Mail By Vanessa May
The X Files, Redux
The Mail By Jennifer Collins Daly
X'd Out
The Mail By Monica A. Widmaier
One From Column “A,” One From Column “X”
The Mail By Rachel A. Bernhardt
On This Spot
The Mail By Gil Shamir
The Wrong Man
The Mail By Arthur B. Spitzer
Thanks but No Thanks
The Mail By Alexandra Edwards
Air Apparent
The Mail By Scott MacLarty