My Visit to “Sin City”: Part II.

Well fight fanatics, the scheduled time for the weigh-in, which was at 2:30 P.M., was drawing near. I was still hauling around that pesky piece of luggage I told you about earlier and was starting to feel the wear and tear of the night before. I walked over to a nice fruit and cereal spread, or what was left of it, that the MGM Grand had put for media personnel in the center.

After a few bites of everything on the table (hey, I can eat), I started feeling a little better. By this time, I had already made contact with a SaddoBoxing.com member, and boxing fan, Mark, who is a resident of Las Vegas. I was hoping Mark could get there soon so that I could unload my piece of hell on wheels, but people do tend to have lives and I am not one to impose. It was agreed that he would arrive before the weigh-in, and that was fine by me. I walked around the MGM Grand and made my way to one of the public restrooms. I changed out my contacts (I can’t see a darn thing without them), and splashed some cold water on my face. As soon as I exited the restroom, my cell phone rang and it was my good friend Anthony. He is part of the Vicente “Chente” Escobedo camp and is the reason why SaddoBoxing.com has that exclusive footage of “Chente” and Daniel Ponce-De Leon working on the focus mitts. Anthony is what we Mexican’s consider “Raza” (same as saying “He is good people,” in English). He offered his room so that I may relieve myself of the luggage, but I told him that I had someone that was already going to help me out.

At about 1:30 P.M., I was standing outside of the “Media Center” talking with Anthony and admiring the new threads that “Team Escobedo” had put together for this fight. They are always styling and this fight’s attire was no different (Anthony, you said you would mail me one of the shirts). Now, by this time, Mark was to have arrived. Since Anthony and I were standing right outside of the “Grand Arena,” where the weigh-in was to take place, I figured it would be no problem. The only thing I knew about Mark was that he tends to say, “Let me tell you Sergio,” a lot, and was Italian. I know what you are thinking, but you must remember that I am from a border city and have been surrounded by Mexican-Americans and Mexicans all my life. Call it stereotyping, but I was looking for anyone who had Italian facial features and I was not wrong. As soon as Mark walked passed us, I knew it was him. I finished my conversation with Anthony and made my way into the “Grand Arena.” By this time, Mark had taken a peek into the place and headed back out the door when I introduced myself. I told Mark of how I knew it was him and he had a laugh. I finally got to get rid of that ball and chain. I felt like I had just been paroled. Mark became the keeper of the “Holy piece of luggage,” which he simply took and threw in the trunk of his car.

I made my way down to the media area of the arena, which was designated for us to take pictures of the weigh-in. It was situated front and center of the scale and seemed like a perfect spot. I was one of the first ones there, so had my choice of any seat. After checking out several different angles, I decided on one seat and plotted myself ready. 2:30 P.M. came around, and there was no fighter in site. I should have known better. A weigh-in that actually takes place on time….I don’t think so. Well fight fans, to make a long story short, the weigh-in did not actually commence until about 3:45 P.M. They had run so late, that the powers that be decided to start with the Hopkins-Taylor weigh-in first.

Things were put into perspective at just how removed boxing is from the “mainstream” as, just before Jermain made his way to the scale, Antonio Tarver arrived and sat right behind me. An usher actually approached Tarver, and his beautiful female companion, and told them that, and I quote, “Excuse me sir, the general public can not sit here. This is only for the media. You will have to find another seat.” I, like Antonio, started to laugh. The “Magic Man” took it very well and told the usher that he was a fighter and had permission to be there. One of Golden Boy Promotion’s personnel was called and, soon enough, Tarver received credentials to be wherever he wanted to be. I am not going to tell you much about the weigh-in, because I think that the pictures I took really captured what happened. The only thing I can say is that the Little Rock Arkansas fans were loud and in full force. It was tense in the arena and everyone in there could tell that tomorrow night’s atmosphere was going to be electric. The stage was set, and all that was needed was for the fight to live up to the expectations.

I made my way out of the arena and met up with Mark. He agreed to drive me to my hotel so that I could check in and get my room. About thirty minutes after, I was already checked in and left my stuff in the room. We made our way back to the MGM Grand, and walked across to the New York, New York Hotel and Casino to grab some food and check out Friday Night Fights at the ESPN Zone Bar and Restaurant. Now, I am no food critic, but being from Texas, I know my ribs. I ordered a rack of baby back ribs and they were the worst I have ever tasted. Well, as we waited for our food, I received a call from the “Jeremy Conn Radio Show,” and was a guest. Jeremy, who has just been awesome with SaddoBoxing.com, talked some shop with me and I gave him my take on the upcoming fights, and some info about the weigh-in. (For the record, I picked Taylor to win a decision). The interview ended and I went back to the table to stare at my food and watch a little bit of the Yankees vs. Boston baseball game.

We decided to leave as the food and atmosphere at the ESPN Zone was not that great. I went back to the hotel to pick up my camera, and we headed to Mark’s home where I used his laptop to upload the weigh-in pictures and sent them to our editor, Jim Cawkwell and the man himself, Saddo, so that the greatest fans on the planet could see what I had seen a little earlier. Once that was done, it was about 9:00 P.M. and I asked Mark to just drop me off at the hotel so that I could get some sleep. We agreed to contact each other on Saturday morning, fight day, at about noon Las Vegas time. I made my way up to my room, and was glad to be lying on a bed, since I had literally not slept in over twenty-four hours. It had been a great experience, and I just could not wait until tomorrow because there was a big Barrera-Peden conference scheduled for 10 A.M., and a lot of other things for the media to partake in. I reviewed the “Fight Day Schedule” one last time, made sure that all my equipment was ready for an early start, and called the front desk to get a “wakeup call” for 7:30 A.M. Just like that, I was out like a light.

Just one more part to go fight fans and trust me, you will want to hear about all that took place on “Fight day and night.” Thanks for your time.

Contact Sergio Martinez at srg_mrtnz@yahoo.com