BoxRec

Gentlemen

Just arrived back from the greatest city on Earth. I know there are probably pages of discussions on the MGM fights on previous pages but thought i would do my "Judith Chalmers" on the trip.

Arrived in Vegas on Thursday. Within 30 minutes of arriving was on the "beach" at the Hard Rock with a frozen margerita and a view of about 200 Californian hard-bodies. Life was good. Watched about 120 private jets go past and realised that travelling to Las Vegas on Virgin, economy class does not make you the man).

Weigh-in on Friday (incidentally, must recommend Fatburger for brunch). I am dubious about weigh-ins in Vegas. So many fighters are exactly on the weight - for example at DLH - Moseley II, all six fighters on the PPV were exactly on the money. It was the same for 5 of the 6 fighters here. I mean, if you were going to scale exactly 160, wouldn't you be a bit nervous you might not make the weight and therefore take your T-shirt and very long shorts off? Oscar looked bloated and puffy at the weigh in, the other 3 middleweights all ripped (I am hoping that when I am 40 I will have a body like Hopkins - certainly don't at 31! - in fact I have male anorexia: everytime I look in the mirror I think I am fat)

Lots of boxing celebs at the weigh in. Michael Buffer in yet another linen suit was the man (I must have seen Buffer ten times and he never has the same suit on. I am keeping a slightly stalker-ish diary of his sartorial variety). Manny Steward was friendly as he always is so long as you ensure your first words to him are servile flattery (an opening of "How does the best trainer in the world see the fight going?" will elicit a loing response detailing (i) who Manny thanks will win and (ii) why either fighter could beat the other if they had Manny in their corner.

A quiet night out on Friday ended at 9.00 AM on Saturday (as this is a family forum (and the off-chance my girlfriend may log-on) I shall spare you all the details.

My thoughts on the fights themselves to follow....

Boxrec Vegas trip 2005

Loynesy wrote:I am dubious about weigh-ins in Vegas. So many fighters are exactly on the weight - for example at DLH - Moseley II, all six fighters on the PPV were exactly on the money. It was the same for 5 of the 6 fighters here

That is dodgy! Las Vegas is all about making money and not the weight it seems.

bennie wrote:

Loynesy wrote:I am dubious about weigh-ins in Vegas. So many fighters are exactly on the weight - for example at DLH - Moseley II, all six fighters on the PPV were exactly on the money. It was the same for 5 of the 6 fighters here

That is dodgy! Las Vegas is all about making money and not the weight it seems.

Hmm ... seems unlikely at first glance, but if there were funny business going on which allowed some overweight guy to appear to weigh in on the button, you'd think the opponent would object. Maybe they have a second scale calibrated identically as the official one, and the fighters just work up a sweat and repeatedly test their weight on that until they meet the limit. I'm not saying there couldn't be anything fishy going on, just that there are non-nefarious explanations, as well. Loynesy, did you get to see what any of the fighters were doing in the hour(s) prior to the official weigh-in?

i'm jealous i wanna go to vegas and watch some fights

If you wait until september when the flights go down in price, it's not an expensive trip. You can stay in a suite hotel off the strip for about 140 quid a week, 300 quid flight.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:If you wait until september when the flights go down in price, it's not an expensive trip. You can stay in a suite hotel off the strip for about 140 quid a week, 300 quid flight.

Is that from Heathrow, James?

Yeah, Virgin Atlantic. Admittedly I did have a fake student ID, which is incidentally very easy to get.

With a stopover it would have been even cheaper, I think the cheapest fare worked out about 250 quid with tax.

Found this blurb about the weigh-in on Boxing Central:

Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Sturm both weighed in exactly at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds. Robert Allen also came in at 160, while Hopkins was 159. Juan Lazcano came in perfect at the lightweight limit of 135. His opponent, Jose Luis Castillo weighed 134½ pounds.

Still 4 of 6 right on the money.

Loynesy, having watched the Hopkins-Allen fight last night for the first time, I couldn't understand why the crowd were booing the contestants within seconds of the opening bell. What was all that about?

Hell, they were booing at one point during Pacquaio v Marquez for fucks sake!

I can only assume they have no idea what they're looking at. Madison Square Garden used to be the undisputed home of big-time boxing and would never have booed two fighters so early in a fight. In fact, they appreciated true boxing. Ken Buchanan's masterful jabbing and counterpunching went down a storm in New York in the 70's.

bennie wrote:I can only assume they have no idea what they're looking at. Madison Square Garden used to be the undisputed home of big-time boxing and would never have booed two fighters so early in a fight. In fact, they appreciated true boxing. Ken Buchanan's masterful jabbing and counterpunching went down a storm in New York in the 70's.

Agreed

I see MSG has got Tito vs Mayorga 8)

I think Vegas crowds are a bit different, I think a lot of people in Vegas are there to ' take in a show' whether it be Tom Jones or boxing, and their appreciation is not of the highest order.

I also think that because the crowd was full of a Filipino/Mexican contingent, they wanted to see them killing one another, and after the first round they were dissapointed.

One thing I will say usually for the York Hall crowd, they know their boxing and the only time they boo is when someone gets shafted on a decision.

Where's part II, Loynesy?