It’s time for another big fight, so you know what that
means: another big disappointment. You
know 12 rounds of patty-cake and a bad decision. Actually, I saw Canelo’s last fight. It was right after the “Fight of the Century”
between Pacquiao and Mayweather. The
bigger fight turned out to be between fans and the sport itself. (This must have been back when I was locked
out of the blog, because I certainly went on at length about it in-person to
everyone I knew after seeing it.)
Undaunted, my co-worker, Mike, and his girl Laiza went to Houston for
the Canelo fight last year. Laiza is a
huge boxing fan and an even bigger Canelo fan.
Mike just does what he’s told, in this case, accompany her to the
fight.
That fight was held at Minute Maid Park downtown. Strangely, the whole area closes down at
night on the weekend and weeknights, except for the ballpark. So, don’t count on going out and enjoying a
meal and the nightlife after a game. Mike
was nice enough to bring me back a Baseball Hall of Fame program (Astro Craig
Biggio had just been inducted), an Astros pen, and some baseball cards from the
teamshop there. Mike found some barbeque
at a vendor that he’s still raving about.
Before the fight, the announcer said, “Let’s open the roof
and let God watch his favorite fighter!” to the cheers of the crowd. Apparently, nobody there had bothered to
stick their head outside lately.
Watching on TV, I could tell it was raining like heck. Mike reported that as the roof opened a
deluge descended upon the crowd.
Quickly, the roof was re-closed.
The fight only went two or three rounds, but both guys went right at
each other. It ended abruptly with a
knockout by Canelo. It might not have
been very long, but the fight was entertaining and certainly raised the esteem
of the sport in my eyes (roughly from “I’ll never watch again” to “I’ll watch
this red-headed kid again.”)
Mike, Laiza, and her son drove out to Las Vegas for this
fight too. Mike declined to buy a ticket
for the fight and ended up staying with her son in the hotel room. It’s a long road trip from southern New
Mexico to Vegas and was made even longer by a two-hour diversion due to a
dangerous dust storm. I’d ask Mike to
send pictures and he obliged by sending these from the weigh-in. (Laiza is a real fan. She insists on getting there for the
pre-fight events.)
This fight was the inaugural big event for the new T-Mobile
Center. There would be 16,540 in
attendance for the fight (don’t ask me where Laiza got those numbers). It’s just off the Strip, next to New York,
New York and the Monte Carlo, and it’s a 10-minute walk from the MGM, where
they were staying. It cost $1.2 Billion (I
question this number as well) and they closed down a street to build it. I’m wondering if it’s located on the vacant
lot used in Yahoo’s Sin City Saints
show, where the fictional owner was planning on building a new arena. (Life imitating art, or fortuitous location
scouting?)
As you can tell, it was cloudy there. It was 55 degrees, cold and rainy. There was a storm after the fight, so it
wasn’t exactly pleasant there. Laiza
reported that there were some belligerent Pakistanis there supporting
Khan. She wasn’t worried, because they
were way outnumbered by drunken Mexicans, still celebrating Cinco de Mayo. She was more concerned about the weather
interfering with the free outdoor undercard.
Mike was just bored standing around, then he sent this
picture with the note, “The event just got a lot less boring.” They did travel around the Strip for a bit
before the fight. Mike lost $10 gambling
and swore he’d never spend another dime in Vegas. Laiza went to the fight by herself. Mike had a harrowing trip through traffic to
get back to the hotel. She ended up
walking back, just before the rain hit.
Tonight’s fight coverage on TV starts showing a fleet of
semis hauling the TV Azteca equipment and personnel out from Mexico City,
through an elaborate drug-smuggling tunnel under the border, and finally
arriving outside the venue in Las Vegas.
We’re taken inside Canelo’s locker room.
He’s on the ground getting stretched out by his trainer. These guys have all areas access to the
man. Meanwhile out in the ring, I see
that the new Doom game is a sponsor.
(Memo to self, check the system requirements on that.) Disappointingly, I don’t see any celebrities
ringside. The people that they give close
ups to, I don’t recognize.
I read my Free Comic Book Day comics during the undercard
bouts and didn’t really pay attention. I
don’t think I missed anything. Let’s
see, I got four comics. The Grumpy Cat
was lightly amusing, but pretty much a kid’s comic. I got it for a co-worker with a Grumpy Cat
doll. The Dr. Who comic was okay. I got that for another co-worker. I’m looking forward to the Suicide Squad
movie later this year (and if it sucks, good luck to DC getting me to pay for
another one of their movies). The comic
was a prologue to the current series, so it didn’t really say much. I hated the original series in the 80’s, and without
Harley I wouldn’t care about this version either. Whenever I’ve gone out for FCBD, I always get
the Archie comic. This time featured a
reprint their current reboot series. I
liked it. It was fairly smartly written
and the art style was attractive, but not enough to get me out to the comic
book store every month for it. Sigh,
just my usual deeply ambivalent feelings towards Free Comic Book Day. When I go, it’s always a waste of time. When I don’t go, I blame myself for not going
out and being lazy.
What was I writing about again? Oh, yeah.
The second undercard ended in a TKO while I was flipping stations. I knew something like that would happen. Whatever.
Before the title match, there’s a segment with a little girl explaining
the sport of boxing and introducing the boxers.
There’s some animation to go with this.
This seems unnecessary and past most kid’s bedtimes.
I love the TV Azteca guys covering the fight, but the commercials
were a bit disappointing. First and most
importantly, they were not running the Tecate girls bumpers between the
rounds. These spots feature really good
looking, scantily clad woman working out and sweating. Instead, they show a series of commercials
featuring Sylvester Stalone, speaking some awkward Spanish, telling nerdy guys
to watch more boxing. The only
commercial I liked was the sexy one for “Ckokies” chocolate chip cookies, but I
may have just been hungry. There were
some political ads. There was an
anti-Trump ad saying something like “The United States belongs to Mexicans,”
and “Screw you, Trump.” (Seriously, I’m
not far off.) Another one was I think
promising a free university education for all Mexicans, to be paid for by rich
Americans. I didn’t know Bernie Sanders
was running for president of Mexico as well.
The main event begins.
The Mexican anthem was sung as a Donald Trump piñata, draped in an
American flag, was lowered from the ceiling and set on fire to the cheers of
the crowd. (Okay, I’m kidding here, but
it could have happened.) Canelo comes
out with a Mariachi band. Then Khan
suddenly appears in the ring. The TV
Azteca crew must have talked over and tuned out his entrance.
My scorecard (As it were.
I’m not counting punches, just listing whoever I thought won the round):
Round 1: Khan.
He got several good hits in. Some
young relatives of Canelo are shown crying after the round is over.
Round 2: Khan.
Canelo was swinging wildly. At
one point, he ended up in a headlock.
The crowd is in shock.
Round 3: Canelo. He got in a good, quick shot to
Khan’s head that stung. Khan only got a
couple of light hits in.
Round 4: Khan. The crowd starts chanting for Canelo,
but Khan gets in two rapid series of hard strikes. There’s a clinch by Khan after a big swing at
his head.
Round 5: Canelo.
The crowd is in an uproar. Canelo
gets in a couple of good hits. He tries
a couple of big uppercuts.
Round 6: Canelo.
Canelo starts to take over. He
gets in two good headshots. Khan
momentarily wobbles after an exchange.
Moments later, Canelo lands a massive right to Khan’s jaw and lays him
out flat on his back. The ref steps over
him and immediately waves his arms. It’s
over. Canelo then wanders over and drops
to his knees next to Khan’s motionless prone form. Suddenly, we’re in commercial. “Oh my God!” I say out loud, “He killed
him.” Thankfully, TV Azteca comes back
30 seconds later. Khan is still lying on
the canvas, but has regained consciousness.
They’re waving a towel over him.
Cut back to Canelo’s ecstatic relatives.
After the fight there
were roughly 1,500 replays of the knockout.
They had one from every angle, including thermo-imaging, an aura
reading, a B&W Raging Bull-style
replay, computer recreations, cartoon animation, and finally a satellite
view. (I might be exaggerating a
bit.) The interview afterward with the
TV Azteca guys was going too fast for me to have any hope of translating. Something, he was in trouble in the opening
rounds. Something, respect for the
sport. Something, credited his win to
his experience. “Heat and soul of a
champion.” Laiza said his English
language interview was rather colorful, but I’m going to decline to quote
anything I didn’t actually hear. A
sports talk host later in the night (who I don’t like, so I’m not naming)
mentioned that Khan was known to have a glass jaw and that Canelo
“chalk-outlined” him. This fight apparently
sets up a match with some guy nicknamed “Triple G.” I’ll be there.
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