It took $50 million to spit-shine the city for its 250th anniversary. Laying out a mere $15 for the Little Italy Christmas Boxing event yesterday painted as good a picture as any of Pittsburgh and its intertwined political and labor history.

It was right there on the canvas, from the staged first bout by former Laborers Council chief Joe Laquatra to the aged political signs along the wall to the scions of former Pittsburgh politicos fighting in the bouts.

The Bloomfield event at the former Roth Carpet on Liberty Avenue was the brainchild of Mark Machi, who runs a gym across the street. Decades ago, Bloomfield hosted a regular Christmastime bout, and last year he decided to relaunch it, with proceeds going to Immaculate Conception Church five blocks east.

The nine youth fights are all about promoting "respect, responsibility and sportsmanship," said Mr. Machi, a former street fighter who specializes in teaching self-defense to women. The card began with his fight against Mr. Laquatra, a former professional boxer and Laborers International Local 1058 business manager who retired in 2000.

Mr. Machi -- the union head's onetime assistant -- got hit with a phantom left 20 seconds into their bout and like in the old days took one for the boss.

The very next (and first real) fight of the day starred 80-pound Shawn Cusick, whose uncle Joey, a former city councilman from Beechview, was known for a couple of big fights of his own: having to face his own brother for a Golden Gloves title in the 1970s and punching a cop outside Bottoms Up, an Overbrook strip club, in 1994.

Aaron Cimino followed. The 16-year-old already has 45 bouts in a career that has lasted half his life, befitting a fourth-generation Pittsburgh fighter -- his great-grandfather Joseph was state boxing commissioner under Gov. Milton Shapp, his grandfather Dom was the longtime head of the city's Bureau of Building Inspection, and his dad, Joe, still coaches him out of a gym in Homestead.

Boxing has long been "great for kids. It keeps them off the streets," Dom Cimino said. "You know where they are when they're in the gym."

Just how tied together are Pittsburgh politics and boxing? The same woman handling the raffle tickets at the Little Italy bout, Carmella Mullen, counted the ballots at a Democratic committee endorsement vote for an empty City Council seat earlier yesterday.

Mr. Machi helped play up the old-time-politics feel. He plastered the walls of the former store with a pile of campaign yard signs he had stored away. Some were current, such as those for city Controller Michael Lamb and perpetual county judge candidate Arnie Klein, and some were much older.

A 5-year-old "Larry Dunn for Controller" sign was by the front door. The best one said, "Re-elect Gene Coon Sheriff," for Allegheny County's sheriff for 27 years, starting in 1970. He last ran in 1993. One year later he angrily shot a rifle over the heads of neighbors at a 4-year-old's birthday party.

Mr. Coon retired and voters replaced him with his deputy, Pete DeFazio, who in 2006 would plead guilty to macing as part of a federal corruption probe. Posters for Mr. DeFazio -- whose brother John is a county councilman, former Steelworkers union official and professional wrestler -- adorned the walls as well.

In Pittsburgh, it all circles around.