LAS VEGAS — There’s a buzz in this gambling town, where the events of next weekend are making some remember boxing’s better times. The city is sold out, the beautiful people are on their way, and Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are acting as if it’s 1985 all over again.
The conventional wisdom is that the sport is dead, killed by greed and mismanagement and scorned by a younger generation that would rather watch fighters try to choke and kick each other. But you would never know it by Super Bowl-like ticket resale prices that start at $1,000 for nosebleed seats and go to $20,000 for ringside Saturday at the MGM Grand hotel-casino.
The fight is a perfect storm for boxing, at a time it desperately needs it. If you believe the hype — and there’s no lacking of hype when it comes to this fight — it could be the richest ever when all the various sources of income are finally added up.
The bout is so big it not only has its own beer can, but its own reality show. Tecate is peddling the beer, and HBO is peddling the fight with a half-hour reality series starring the wacky Mayweathers in their role as the oh-so-dysfunctional first family of boxing.
Tune in Sunday night and you’ll see Floyd’s father walk out of camp because his brother, who trains Mayweather, is disrespecting him. If you’re lucky, maybe the grizzled and dreadlocked Floyd Sr., who used to train De La Hoya, will recite one of his fractured poems about their fractured relationship.
