LAS VEGAS -- It's a big fight weekend at the MGM Grand as Joel Casamayor and Juan Manuel Marquez prepare to meet in Saturday night's lightweight championship main event. One of the best parts of covering a fight is getting a chance to catch up in a relaxed atmosphere with all of the boxing folks who hit town for the match.
The place to do that on Friday night was at the MGM bar just off the main lobby, the one by the elevators. It was overrun by boxing folks, as usual.
After dinner with some fellow media members and the terrific media relations team working on the fight, I strolled into the bar around 10:30 p.m. and began to chat with the guru of the Southern California notebook,
Doug Fischer of Maxboxing.com. Just past Dougie, was
Ricky Hatton (there's only one, you know).
Hatton, along with buddy and adviser
Paul Speak, had arrived from England a little earlier in the evening. They are here for a Saturday morning press conference to talk about Hatton's Nov. 22 junior welterweight title defense against
Paulie Malignaggi at the MGM. They'll do the press conference here and then it's back to the U.K. for another news conference on Tuesday. With all that flying, better them than me. (If you're concerned, I had the upgrade on the way out and also have one for the Sunday flight home.)
Hatton in a bar? That should come as no surprise to anyone. He's a man who loves his pints. However, on this night, Hatton was drinking nothing more than a cold lemonade since he is in training for the fight. Hatton, who looked like he still had a ways to go before being close to weight, is a very sociable guy and offered a handshake and a pat on the back. We talked some boxing along with
Eric Gomez, the Golden Boy matchmaker.
A few fans approached Hatton, who gladly signed autographs, shook hands and posed for photos. Without being drunk, or even tipsy, a few of us even belted out everyone's favorite song, "Walking in a Hatton Wonderland."
Gomez mentioned that he was still working on putting together a possible Nov. 15
David Haye-
Kevin Johnson fight, but that they were a little apart on the money. He also mentioned that another name had entered the sweepstakes,
J.D. Chapman, which is a joke in my opinion.
Chapman (29-0, 26 KOs) has an eye-catching record, but it has been built up almost entirely in Arkansas against horrific opposition. This is not a credible fight. But I digress.
So who else is in the bar? A few feet away was
Zab Judah. He came over to us and it marked the first time he and Hatton had ever met. They shared a handshake and a hug and posed for a few pictures together. It was a pretty cool scene. While they had their arms around each other and were joking around, Gomez, Speak and I all agreed that we'd like to see them fight.
By the way, earlier in the day I had seen Judah at the Casamayor-Marquez weigh-in. He came over to me to say hello and told me he was seriously considering going back to junior welterweight, where he twice held versions of the title.
When he lost a technical decision to
Joshua Clottey for a vacant welterweight belt on Aug. 2, Judah, the former undisputed welterweight champ, weighed just 143 pounds. He said he thinks can make 140 and that he'd love a big fight with Hatton.
While I'm on the topic of the weigh-in, I had a chance to meet for the first time Olympic bronze medalist
Deontay Wilder, who received the only boxing medal for the U.S. in Beijing. He recently signed with manager
Shelly Finkel and Golden Boy, so Finkel was introducing him to some of the media and movers and shakers, such as HBO's
Mark Taffet and
Kery Davis. Wilder made a very good first impression. He's got an outgoing personality and I'm looking forward to seeing him develop professionally.
Now back to the bar scene.
Also hanging out not five feet from us was Malignaggi, who is also here for the press conference. Thankfully, his hair was nice and short, not that long mess that almost cost his rematch with
Lovemore N'Dou on Hatton's undercard a few months ago. Malignaggi and Hatton didn't talk to each other, but there was no issue with them being close to each other. They are both good guys and not looking to cause trouble.
Malignaggi also looked like he had a ways to go to make weight, but he told me that his chronically injured hand, which he hurt again against N'Dou, was feeling great as he pointed out the scar from his most recent surgery.
Malignaggi's trainer,
Buddy McGirt, was also there enjoying a cool beverage, just as he has the past few nights. Golden Boy publicist
Monica Sears was also on the scene. And the madman, Malignaggi promoter
Lou DiBella, was also making the rounds. He had no problem telling Gomez that he too thought a Haye-Chapman fight was a joke.
I was surprised to also run into
Bones Adams, a former junior featherweight champ. I hadn't seen him in years, but he was always one of my favorite guys to interview and had some great fights. He still wants to fight and he looked good, even though he's only had three fights in five years. Adams just moved back to Vegas from Vero Beach, Fla., where he lived just a few houses away from McGirt. Adams got married in 2005 and he pulled out his cell phone to show me a picture of his 2-year-old son,
Achilles Bones Adams. He said he recently put his son in a ring and he immediately began throwing punches -- as a southpaw. Looks like another generation is on the way.
Last, but certainly not least,
Jin Mosley, the wife and manager of
Shane Mosley, was briefly in the house. We chatted for a few minutes, but she and a few friends, including
Michelle Corrales, the widow of
Diego "Chico" Corrales, were on their way out to another nightspot. Shane, of course, was not there. He's training for his fight against
Ricardo Mayorga in two weeks, where undoubtedly a similar scene will repeat itself at the fight hotel the night before the bout.
Dan Rafael
