.jpg)
Las Vegas Boxing Examiner | Chris Robinson
In boxing there is always more than meets the eye. What takes place on the surface is often masking something else and in a sport often lacking in loyalty and good will you never know what is taking place behind closed doors. Whether we like it or not, sometime the moves that are made in the business are solely based on money and incentive, and not the best interest of all parties at hand.
In regards to the hopeful March 13th Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather clash there is still much uncertainty in the air. Rumors are swirling left and right on a daily basis and there are still many particulars that need to be ironed out if the bout does end up going through. At the moment there still seem to be three key players looking to host the fight; Las Vegas, Dallas, and New Orleans.
One man who knows Vegas very well from all of his years in the sport is veteran boxing scribe Michael Marley, and the Boston native is firm in his belief that the city will once again play host to yet another huge showdown by landing the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. Having spent some of his early years in Nevada as a writer for the Las Vegas Sun, Marley has a deep appreciation for everything that Las Vegas brings to the table and considers it the modern day Mecca of the sport.
Marley recently opened up to me about all things Vegas, from his initial venture to the Valley, his best memories from the boxing world, and how the city has reinvented itself over the years. Marley will be the first to tell you that there is no other place like Las Vegas and has an endless list of reasons for believing why there is no other ideal place for a fight like Pacquiao-Mayweather to jump off. In his own words, this is what Marley had to say…
Going out to Las Vegas…
“I grew up in Boston and left home when I was 18. I wouldn’t say I had an outstanding amateur career but I did have a little bit of success. I floated like a butterfly and I stung like a moth. I never had any illusions about being a professional but I wanted to see if I could the little boxing knowledge I had to either go to college or fight in the army. Jimmy Ellis, who became Heavyweight champion and was known as Muhammad Ali’s sparring partner and friend had a brother named Charley Ellis who recommended that I try out for the army boxing team. To make a long story short I would up going to the University of Nevada which was one of the four colleges that still had active boxing. I boxed up there and I also worked for the newspaper up there. I left there and went back to Boston for a year. The economy was even worse believe it or not than it is now. I couldn’t get back on the Boston Globe where I worked as a kid so I actually got back into the ‘transportation industry’ which was a nice way of saying that I was driving a cab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Then I got a chance to go work for the Las Vegas Sun from the Sports editor out there. He asked me when would I be available to go out to Las Vegas and I went out there immediately.”
A lot of fun…
“I spent three fun filled years out in Nevada. I was at the age of 25 and it was going towards the end of the year. It was around the time when the wise guys ran Las Vegas and it was a lot of fun. There were always great fights out there. I was able to make great relationships with guys like Larry Holmes, who was Heavyweight champion for eight years. Every Wednesday night out there we used to have the old Silver Slipper fights on the strip. The Silver Slipper was a very small Casino but it was a fantastic atmosphere. You always had wise guys in there and casino guys. I can remember one night sitting ringside and Red Fox was next to me and the great tennis player Jimmy Connors was in front of me. There was no television back then but the betting was phenomenal. There weren’t any real sports books that were in the casino but guys would end up betting ten and thousands of dollars. You had all these characters out there too. It wouldn’t be uncommon to see a boxer losing a fight and have one of the gamblers run up to him and say ‘Hey kid I’ll give you $500 if you score a knockout,”, because they obviously had money on the fight. The commission just looked the other way and that’s how Vegas was back in the day.”
Great affection…
“I had to leave Vegas because I had an opportunity to write for the New York Post, which had always been my goal since I was a little kid. I went to New York but will never forget my years out in Las Vegas. I have great affection for Las Vegas and the state of Nevada. I still go back from time to time and I can tell it has changed. Nevada is different from the other 49 states in a lot of ways. I think Las Vegas has changed in the sense that it has become a big corporate enterprise. The gangsters were run out of town and some of them died off. Now you just have these corporate mentality guys and that’s when they started with ‘family, fun, Las Vegas’ and there is a place for that but they don’t call it an adult Disneyland for nothing. You have the ladies in the evening, the gamblers all day long and it’s just a different kind of crowd. It’s a crazy city where you can have the best professor in the world at UNLV make $100,000 while some strippers making $300,000 a year. I think it just became not as personal over the years. The old timers use to runt their casinos in a much more personal way. In the old days you used to be at the bar in Caesar’s Palace and Frank Sinatra would be sitting across from you. You had the legends in those days, guys like Sammy Davis Jr., Sinatra, Dean Martin, the famous Rat Pack, and that’s what made Vegas what it was and made it unique.”
Vegas wins out…
“It’s funny. I noticed that Bob Arum spoke to a Filipino reporter today and he mentioned that the MGM is a leading candidate. I think the fight will wind up at the MGM. I know they are going to go visit Jerry Jones in Dallas and maybe there will be a proposal from New Orleans, but New Orleans is still hurting from Hurricane Katrina. Dallas could be a good place but for as big as a fight as it is, it’s still a fight between Mayweather and a guy from the Philippines. If you had a Mexican opponent, like a Marquez or a Chavez type of guy than I think Dallas would make more sense but at the end of the day Vegas wins out.”
Sticking with the winner…
“Outside of maybe New York or Los Angeles, I can’t think of any other American city that has more flights coming in, especially from international locations, other than Las Vegas. Even though the economy is bad like it is everywhere, Las Vegas is still going to have more flights. You have 150,000 hotel rooms, the food is still reasonably cheap, and you can take a $1,000 and go to Las Vegas and have the time of your life. Vegas has also always supported boxing through good times and bad. I know there isn’t any loyalty in boxing because it’s all about the money and I know there isn’t any loyalty in the casino business either but there is an expression in gambling that you stick with the winner. Boxing owes something to Las Vegas. As I said, through good times and bad Las Vegas has always been there. Look at Atlantic City; they have maybe one or two big fights a year. It never became a rival to Las Vegas. When you think of all the great fights there, Las Vegas became what Madison Square Garden was years ago. It became the Mecca of boxing and I’m convinced that on March 13th, 2010 we’ll all be out there again to see Mayweather and Pacquiao in the ring. Especially now given the financial situation, Vegas is still on the ropes and Vegas needs this fight. The city of Dallas is going to roll on with or without the fight. Las Vegas needs it and the MGM Grand, the same company that owns the Mirage and the MGM and Mandalay Bay, I think they are going to clamp down and I don’t think they are going to let this fight of the century out their grasp.”
Source: Examiner.com
No comments:
Post a Comment