HERMON ? The real arena was located outside The Sports Arena Saturday night.

It was fight night on Outer Hammond Street as The Sports Arena hosted a 10-bout USA Boxing-sanctioned amateur card for the second time overall and the first since September.

Judging from the size of the crowd and the absence of a single empty parking space within a quarter-mile radius of the entertainment complex, it won’t be the last.

“We have a capacity of 500 in the tent and we had several standing outside, so yeah, we were very happy with attendance,” said Len Cole, The Sports Arena’s owner.

Almost all the action (there was a fight outside in the parking lot after the last ‘real’ fight was winding up) was held under a big, white, ‘big top” tent set up behind the facility.

As the evening’s schedule progressed, the bouts became steadily better, culminating with the last two: a heavyweight clash (201 pounds) between promoter/boxer and local boy Josh McAuliffe and Mike Alcott of Lewiston and the “main event” between Bangor’s Chad McAuliffe and Norridgewock’s Matt Field.

The McAuliffe brothers earned a split as Josh stopped Alcott midway through the third round of their four-round bout. The referee gave McAuliffe the win with an RSC (referee stopped contest ? similar to a TKO, technical knockout) and Field beat Chad McAuliffe with a unanimous decision after their four-round bout in 152.

“I changed up a little. Going in, I wanted to box a little more and throw more right hands, but I was getting a little tired so I decided to come inside and put combinations together,” said Field, who admitted it took some time to get used to the lefthanded McAuliffe. “I was trying to mix it up a little.”

Field and Chad McAuliffe thrilled the loud crowd by going toe to toe most of the bout and trading not just blows, but exchanging combinations and flurries.

“He was kind of slick, moving me around a little, but after awhile I could see he was getting tired so I came forward and put the pressure on him,” said Field, an 18-year-old Skowhegan High School graduate who evened his record at 7-7.

Field, a delivery driver for House of Pizza in Norridgewock, has been boxing for two years and hopes to eventually turn pro.

“Yeah, I’d like to see how far this takes me,” Field said.

So would Chad McAuliffe’s older brother, who became involved with the sport after watching Chad fight five years ago.

“Up until my last fight, my brother and I were basically the same type of fighters: Just sluggers, you know what I mean?” Josh explained. “I found myself getting winded like my brother did at the end of his fight, and getting hit when I shouldn’t have, so my strategy my last couple fights is to stay relaxed, get in there, feel the guy out early on and see what he’s got before going after him.”

Josh McAuliffe hit Alcott square on the chin midway through the second round and then caught him with a body shot late.

“I think that was what took it out of him because he started dropping his hands and covering his body. So I went upstairs on him,” said the 25-year-old Bangor native, who is now 13-4 over his five-year career.

The fight took on even more intensity after it ended as Alcott followed him to his corner, talking to him in a heated fashion and continuing to do so when the two fighters were outside the ring.

“He was a little out of shape and told me to take it easy and work with him, but I was like ‘hey, I’m in front of my home crowd’ and my best defense is my offense,” Josh McAuliffe explained. “He came in here earlier and said he was going to take my head off. I beat him once before and he said he got robbed on that one.”

Mike Donaldson, a fellow McAuliffe Boxing Club team member from Bangor, didn’t get robbed as he conquered jitters and butterflies and won his debut bout with an RSC in the second round against Timmy Hughes of Rochester, N.H.

“Oh I did, yeah? Real bad, but once it started, the butterflies went away,” said the 20-year-old Donaldson. “Once I noticed I was beating him, I felt a lot better.”

Donaldson, who has been boxing for four months, was intimidated at first by the raucous crowd.

“In the beginning, yeah, I didn’t want to get in there,” he admitted. “I was scared and nervous, but once I got going, I wasn’t thinking about anything but beating the guy in front of me.”

The rest of the results from the evening’s card were as follows:

Matt Field’s 14-year-old brother Zack won a three-round unanimous decision in the 118-pound class against D.J. Wyman of Manchester, N.H.

Manchester’s Joey Lever earned a unanimous decision against Max Rome of Rochester in three rounds at 130.

Todd Soto of Rochester, N.H., beat Dover-Foxcroft’s Jeff Harrison in a three-round unanimous decision in 145.

Scott Giroux of New Hampshire stopped Geoffrey James of Bangor with an RSC in the first round in a 141-pound fight.

Stockton Springs’ Andy Weaver took out Joe Smith of Rochester, N.H. in the second round of their 178-pound bout.

Joe St. Hilaire of Manchester, N.H. won a unanimous decision after three rounds in 165 against Bangor’s Seth Duncklee.

John Downs of Lewiston beat Bangor’s Adam Lawrence with an RSC 15 seconds into the second round of their 165-pound bout.