Morning folks, well it depends what time zone you're in (or your body thinks you are in).
For all the boxing fans this is going to be a bit more interesting than the poker fans i'm afraid, afterall we went to watch the Urango/Hatton fight.
Flight at 9am from Brum on Wednesday morning and this silly sod decided to stay up all night and sleep on the plane, bad idea as it never happened. Nothing to report about the flight except it was horrid, 7 hours to NY, 4 hours wait there then another 3 hours to Vegas.
We took a sort of aquaintance with us (3 of us have been mates for 20 years) who goes by the nickname of DOOM, you often find people pick up these sort of tags for a reason and my god he really is the most depressing bloke on the planet.
First thing he said when we booked up for Vegas was "it's bloody freezing over there", cheery chap.
Other assorted quotes related to plane crashes, luggage being lost, getting mugged, getting ripped off etc. you get the picture, just like the robot out of Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
Day 1
Drop our bags off and head straight to Steve "the viking" Fosters hotel room, he opens the door starkers for some reason.
He meets us downstairs and off to New York New Yorks piano bar to meet the boxing promoters for our tickets, that sorted we get smashed and fall into bed early. (a theme will soon develop).
Day 2
Press conference in the Paris, which is basically everyone involved, the promoters, the casino, the boxers, the trainers etc. all thanking each other for an hour and a half then a few piccies, some whining by Urango's camp because he is the champ yet second to Hatton blah blah blah.
Met up with Ritchie Woodhall who was working for the Beeb and who rather embarassingly admitted he was going to see Tom Jones that night, some tuff guy eh?
A little poker as we decided to play $1/$2 at Bally's but we all lost our buyins in an hour and got drunk, went to bed.
Day 3
Met up with Joe Egan, he is an old aquaintance of ours from many a boxing show over the years, if anyone knows him they will know the guy can talk for Ireland, an amazing bloke with so many stories about Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson etc.
Tyson due to his bail conditions cannot cross the state line to Vegas so he won't make the fight but Joe wanted us to drive to go see him, a plan quickly scuppered by the fact it takes 7 hours to drive to where he is.
Instead he takes us to Wayne McCoulochs (sp?) gym where we meet the great man and also (more impressively) Leila Ali, yes the great man's daughter and she is absolutely stunning, a real beauty.
Back to Bally's where i lose $250 playing $1/$2 (i won't bore you with the bad beats), get drunk, go to bed.
Oh and we hid Doom's bed next door (the whole thing), he was not impressed at all and was threatening all sorts of violence against us before we finally stopped laughing long enough to give it back to him, no sense of humour see?
Day 4
Day of the fight.
We do some sightseeing and meet at the Paris at 3pm have a few drinks and meet some other chaps who have come for the fight, head off at 4.30 for the first bout which is Mathew Hatton v can't remember, easy win for Mathew though so a good start.
Then Castillo v (can't remember either as the programs are still packed and i cant be bothered to move sorry), really looking forward to this one as Castillo is a legend but the fight was a disappointment, Castillo got it on points but most of us believe the other chap shaded it, not casting aspersions here but we "knew" who was getting the result.
Hatton pretty much did his stuff, a more defensive fight than usual but he did the bizz, their styles are very much the same so we expected little less.
We went back to the Bar at the Paris and i won $565 at $1/$2, got drunk, went to bed only to discover the next day that Steve Foster came looking for us to take us to the after fight party DOH!!!!
Day 5
Went sightseeing/shopping all day then met up with a few lads at (yes i know) the Paris, this time we went out to a few places including Revolution at the Mirage and O'Sheas, Steve got a call to meet up with Ricky Hatton so we went off to the piano Bar and an Irish bar in New York, New York with him and Mathew and Will Mellor of "2 pints" fame, top night great fun but blimey they get harassed by fans, nobody complained though apart from Ricky's girlfriend who wanted to take one persistant female fan outside for a scrap
Day 6
Our last day and it was a limo ride to Mandalay Bay's airport for the grand canyon tour, loved it especially when the pilot said "ever been on a chopper before?", "no" we all reply. "me either" says he.
Doom was his usual morose self but it was fun.
plenty of shopping and then (you guessed it) the Paris for drinkies before bed and an early start (4am) for the airport.
I have (or will have) tons of pictures but as i say just about all boxing related, it was a fantastic week and i shall be going back.
I will do all the poker related stuff next time though.
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