After landing at JFK airport in New York last week, the immigration officer asked me: “What is the purpose of your visit to the United States, sir?” I responded: “I am traveling to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in Vegas.”
The immigration officer engaged me in a 10-minute conversation about the fight. He already had bought his pay-per-view package. His pick? Manny Pacquiao. Why? He said: “All Manny wanted for five years was this fight!”
Everyone from Al Ain to New York to Las Vegas is talking about this fight. Such colossal buzz for a boxing match was last experienced, when? For Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden in 1971? Ali versus George Foreman for the Rumble in the Jungle of 1974?
After a couple of days in beautiful Manhattan, I still was wondering about how I would get a pass for the fight. At that minute I had no official passes whatsoever; I was flying all the way to the other side of the world on a hunch.
The public-relations people organising media credentials advised me a week before that only a select few media professionals would be given a pass for the fight and a smaller group would be given a pass for the Fight Week activities.
A friend of mine got me a ticket to the official weigh-in, so I was excited to be there and experience this once-in-a-lifetime event, the richest fight in the history of boxing. I was off to bed around 10.30pm as I had the morning flight to Vegas to catch. I got an email from the organisers that my Fight Week pass had been approved from 15,000-plus requests from around the globe!
A friend sent me a message on Twitter, offering me a ticket at the very back row of the MGM Grand for the fight. The damage? US$7,600 (Dh27,900)! I passed up the opportunity and he sold the ticket the next minute. That’s how much this fight is in demand!
I arrived in Las Vegas at 1.30pm on Tuesday after a delayed flight. Floyd Mayweather’s grand arrival at the MGM Grand was just less than 90 minutes away.
I managed to get into the MGM Grand by 2.30pm and the scene there was absolutely electric. The energy was palpable. I sat just behind Floyd Mayweather Sr, Floyd’s father and trainer. He was happy to take a picture with me and chat a bit about Dubai and his son.
I ran into Alex Ariza, Floyd’s fitness coach; Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president of Showtime Sports; former WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne; and J’Leon Love, a boxer signed to Mayweather Promotions. Even Bob Arum was hanging around at the media centre tent with four cameras following him. Everyone from the boxing world was there to see Mayweather arrive at the hotel.
The lights dimmed, the Southern University marching band started a march towards the stage, as if to indicate the president had arrived and, boy, did he arrive in style!
Floyd walked down the aisle with his “TMT” (The Money Team) entourage and went up on the stage. Flashing cameras followed him and the roar from the fans made the organs in my body vibrate. He briefly thanked his children, fans and the media for supporting him throughout his career.
After addressing the crowd, who packed the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the members of the international media were invited on stage in groups to have one-on-one interview sessions with the champ. Yes, I did get my chance after waiting over an hour.
While I was waiting on stage to interview Mayweather, I had a chat with former WBC lightweight and WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner, who was there to support his “big bro”, as he likes to call him.
We all will be back at MGM Grand on Wednesday for a media brunch and, Thursday, for the official pre-fight press conference featuring Mayweather and Pacquiao.
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