Inside the Ropes 11.16.09: Weekend in Vegas

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 11.16.2009

Our jam packed weekend in Sin City including the Tweetup, final thoughts on Manny Pacquiao's impressive history-making win and where Cotto goes next. Plus, Mosley vs. Berto and other tidbits from Sin City.


Photos by Laura De La Torre / 411mania.com

Nothing like a fight week in Vegas and this past weekend was no exception. Obviously we eagerly came to town to cover the mega-fight between pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao and now former two-time welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto. Arriving on Friday afternoon, you could quickly feel the excitement in the air as the hype for the fight was peaking in lieu of the upcoming final weigh-in at the MGM Grand. Only hours later, we were inside the media room at the MGM as Laura (De La Torre) and I met up with our own Ryan Bates and Igor Frank. After an hour or so of conversing about who we though would win the fight we made our way inside the arena. Before we made it inside however, we bumped into Madelyn aka 'FabulousMady', who's one of our Twitter followers and part of our official Twitter-fam. Great finally meeting you by the way!

Entering the weigh-in was something else. The arena was split between Cotto and Pacquiao supporters who loudly cheered their fighters as they anxiously awaited to get a glimpse of their heroes. I've always said that Ricky Hatton weigh-ins are by far the loudest and most spirited but Pacquiao's come close. Add that to the fever that was brought on by the Puerto Rican fans and we experienced an unbelievable atmosphere. As you can imagine, whey both fighters stepped on the scales, the fans gave them an earful of motivation which only added to the build-up; just great stuff. Ryan and I simply marveled at the level of pride from both sides as we took notes and the official weights. After getting the weights posted, we headed to the West Wing Bar at around 4:30 pm. to meet up with Steve from Top Rank (who handles their Twitter account) for the aforementioned Tweetup. We had been planning this for weeks and with TR spearheading the get together, we arrived and had the chance to meet up with some of our readers and listeners of 3 More Rounds. Nothing like 2 for 1 drinks and talking it up with our fans. Big ups to Brian, Madelyn and Charlene for coming out – great meeting you all!

We wrapped up with the Tweetup around 6 pm as we needed to head over to the Mandalay Bay to cover the fights at the House of Blues which aired on Azteca America. The one sore spot of the entire weekend came here as Z Gorres appeared to cruise to a decision win before getting dropped by a straight right hand in the final round of the fight. He seemed OK and finished the round to finish the fight but moments later collapsed in his corner. Luckily he was rushed immediately to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery for a subdural hematoma. The surgery, we were informed, was successful but Gorres remains in an induced coma to allow him to heal. We'll keep you posted on that by the way.

After the fights, we went back to the hotel to get ready and meet up with Top Rank once again for a continuation of our Tweetup which ended up at Studio 54 for a little pre-fight party. We arrived around 11 pm and walked right in to have some drinks in the upstairs VIP area. Shortly after, we invited Gabriel Montoya of MaxBoxing and Michael Rosenthal of The Ring Online up to meet us for some drinks. As you can imagine the talk was about the upcoming fight as well as some other future plans including coverage of Kessler vs. Ward on Nov. 21. Around 1 am we took off and went right into Centrifuge; the adjacent lounge to continue the conversation about previous fights we've covered and favorite old time fighters. By about 3 am it was time to call it a night as we had a full day ahead of us on Saturday.

Fight Night

We woke up and headed out to the Mandalay Bay once again around 11 am as Golden Boy Promotions was holding a press conference to announce the January 30 clash between WBA welterweight titlist Shane Mosley and WBC beltholder Andre Berto. With all of the recent trash talk on Twitter lately, it was nice to finally see them meet face to face to make it official. As previously reported, the fight will air on HBO and not on PPV much to the delight of everyone though the biggest surprise is that as of this writing, neither title is on the line. To me, that's a big problem as we have a possible unification bout and truthfully, the loser will have no right to continue calling themselves a champion. Case in point, put the belts on the line guys and let's do this the right way!

Around noon, walked over to the nearby China Grill for another Golden Boy media event as a luncheon was thrown in celebration for new WBA heavyweight titlist David Haye. Before we enjoyed some lunch, Haye was presented the WBA title by Oscar De La Hoya who proclaimed that Haye would bring some much needed excitement to the heavyweight division. Haye for his part, spoke to reporters and assured us all that after he defends his title against mandatory challenger John Ruiz early next year, he will try and get the fights made with the Klitschkos in order to unify the belts. Haye made it clear that he is willing to fight anywhere and specifically spoke about making those fights in the U.S. Around 2 pm we made the short drive to the MGM Grand to pick up our media credentials and head into the press room. It was jam packed to say the least and everyone we spoke to was anxious in anticipation for the fight. Most of the other reporters and photographers we spoke to agreed that it was tough to pick a winner but that a close fight was expected.

When the clock struck 6:00 pm, we made our way into the arena to begin covering the fights. As I expected, the Gomez vs. Soto-Karass fight was a fun little slugfest that really should have been the co-featured bout. Both fighters gave it their all as they matched each other blow for blow but with Gomez seemingly getting the upper hand. A clash of heads in the first round opened up a cut on Gomez' forehead that worsened as the fight went on. Feeling a sense of urgency, Gomez poured it on but put himself in harms way of Karass' sharp right hands. The cut unfortunately became too much of an issue and the fight was stopped which was disappointing but it was good while it lasted. Gomez as you know by now took the decision win. The Foreman-Santos bout was actually a little more enjoyable than I expected but the frequent headbutts were a little too much. Foreman fought well though and frustrated the WBA junior middleweight champ in what turned out to be an upset decision win. That the feather-fisted Foreman managed to stun and drop Santos was pretty impressive and we hope is added aggression in this fight will carry over to future title defenses. The biggest disappointment of the evening came in the way of Julio Cesar Chavez' snooze-fest against Troy Rowland. Most of us were sure Chavez would make quick work of the American but despite Rowland's 2 mph punches, Chavez continuously ate them up to land his own punches but I feel it was unnecessary. He made it a more difficult fight than he needed to and to be honest, he appeared disinterested in the fight. His disinterest carried over and made the fight a real chore to watch. He won by decision but probably lost a few fans in the process. Terrible night for Junior who picked up his 41st win.

The Main Event

The WBO welterweight clash between Manny and Cotto was up next and with the sold out arena rumbling from passionate fans, the two appeared from their dressing rooms and into the ring. I obviously don't need to go much into the fight as you all either saw it or read my round by round blog but I just want to reiterate that it was one of the most exciting fights I've seen in a while. The fans ate it up and so did the media in press row. When it was all said and done Manny had picked up his seventh world title in seventh weight class, making him the first fighter to ever accomplish that feat. What an incredible performance by the Pacman who took everything Cotto had and dished out his own punishment that left Cotto bruised and battered before referee Kenny Bayless had seen enough in the final stanza. Immediately after the fight, the Pacman fans chanted in unison "We want Floyd! We want Floyd!" Quite a statement...

Humbled by his own supernatural performance, Manny thanked everyone at the post-fight press conference as he acknowledged that it was his toughest fight to date, though Juan Manuel Marquez would probably beg to differ. He gave Cotto his props and also admitted that he was hurt on a few occasions by Cotto's heavy blows. He also need to get some blood drained out from his right ear in order to avoid having cauliflower ear and even he joked about it as he wore a bandage over the ear, masked by a spiffy hat. Cotto on the other hand was taken to a local hospital for a full body scan as a precaution and general protocol. Before walking off, Pacquiao proclaimed that he would no longer refer Freddie Roach as his coach but rather as Master Freddie, drawing laughter from the press. With Pacquiao on his way to the Mandalay Bay for the after-party which was to include a mini-concert where he'd sing eight songs, he gave us a brief demo of his singing talents; multi-talented indeed. On a side note, Bob Arum said that if Mayweather wants the fight with Pacquiao, "have him call me". It was then revealed moments later that HBO, Arum and Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer would meet this week to have some preliminary talks about a possible Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown for 2010. Keep your fingers crossed!

By the time it was all said and done it was about 11:30 pm and we were finishing up our coverage before taking off back to the hotel to change and come back for some additional drinking. Ryan stayed behind at the MGM and caught up with Alfonso Gomez along with his wife and new belt. We met up with them at Rouge which is a lounge inside the MGM for a little while to talk about the fight, our wedding, which Gomez is attending and vacationing in Mexico. About an hour later he took off with his wife and brother to Pure at Caesar's Palace while Ryan, Laura and I met up with photographers Ed Mulholland and Chris Farina to kick back a few until the fatigue finally took over around 5 am.

Headed Home

Sleeping it off until 11 am, Laura and I then went back to Mandalay on Sunday morning to have some lunch until finally driving off at 4 pm on our way back to the San Francisco Bay Area.

It was a great weekend in Las Vegas as usual and we can't wait to return on January 30th.

Finally I'd just like to say that despite being on the losing end, Miguel Cotto should be proud of his performance and specifically for demanding to fight on after a tough 11th round.

Pacquiao on the other hand may have cemented his place as the greatest fighter of this era. Congratulations Pacman.