As the first week of the NFL season is wrapping up and America’s favorite sport jumps back into the spotlight for the next 5 and a half months, football towns across the country welcome their beloved sport back with open arms something similar is happening in the southwest, a city that is known for bright lights, anything goes attitude and great fights-Las Vegas, Nevada is also gearing up for one of the biggest fight weekends in their history when Floyd “Money” Mayweather faces off against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
For the past 100 days both fighters have promoted this fight with an 11 city press tour, Showtime All Access and numerous stops a local radios and television stations across the country. Add that the heavy promotional advertisement and the love both of these fighters get from their fans this upcoming weekend is almost like a boxing fans home opening weekend.
While the MGM Grand Garden Arena may be only able to hold 18,000 or so fans on fight night, thousand more will flock to sin city to be around the fight week festivities. Add that it is Mexican Independence weekend and this will be a week to remember in Las Vegas.
Both fighters will bring the legion of fans and it says something when it was announced during the showtime fights Arreola vs Mitchell that the entire MGM Grand Garden Arena will be open for the weigh as opposed the the typical one end of the arena as to how big this fight is. If even half of the arena is open that is roughly 9,000 to 10,000 fans for a weigh in. That is a insane amount of fans.
While NFL may be the biggest sport in America, for this is the calm before the storm as this next Saturday night from Las Vegas in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, America will have a new favorite sport- at least for three or so hours when Mayweather and Canelo finally clash in what many are anticipating being one for the ages.
I hope so because if it ends in some unfortunate fashion such as Mayweather-Ortiz then we may see another one on these:
And then…
Did anyone catch the last episode of Showtime All Access- The part where Broner meets up with Mayweather. What stuck out to me was Broner mentioned that he has been on tour with is band for the past 2 months. While I do not know his child situation (other than he may be competing Antonio Cromartie and Travis Henry for most kids by a pro) and he very well may be a great father, it was just a little surprising to hear he’s been on tour for 2 months, then again may be it isn’t all that surprising.
Seth Mitchell was supposed to be America’s next great heavyweight hope. That was of course until he was exposed by Chazz Witherspoon, knocked out by Johnathon Banks and final nail in the coffin by Chris Arreola. While it pains me to say his career in boxing may be over, I also like to say I liked Mitchell. I hated to see the way he lost, part of me was rooting for him, not because he was our best heavyweight, just because I liked the guy. That’s the way it goes sometimes.
If you have a fight ticket to this weekends fight, kudos to you, but for the folks that are still looking, I feel for you.