Don’t look now but Los Angeles is becoming a serious contender for America’s official Fight Town.
Nothing can compare to the spectacle of the Las Vegas strip on a fight night and L.A. will have to attract better judges than the three blind mice who scored the Lyoto Machida-Shogun Rua fight at Staples.
Make no mistake though. L.A. is a fight town on the rise and Vegas has some serious competition on its hands.
Having hosted a multitude of boxing, UFC and WWE events in recent years, Staples Center is now stepping up to bid for what could be the biggest sporting event of 2010.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Staples Center ownership group AEG has offered $20-million to host the Manny Pacquaio-Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega fight. How serious is the offer? Apparently it is serious enough for Mayweather’s promoter to cancel a trip to visit the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
Staples Center has hosted everything from Michael Jackson’s funeral to the NBA Finals. However, the largest crowd to ever file into the Downtown L.A. arena was a crowd of 20,800 who watched Shane Mosley knock the plaster of Paris out of Antonio Margarito back in January.
Selling tickets is never an issue when Money May is involved and the large Pinoy population in L.A. will come out in droves to support their fellow countryman Pacquiao. Chances are the blockbuster brawl, tentatively scheduled for March 13th, would also eclipse the record pay-per-view numbers generated by Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather in May of 2007.
One piece of advice for anybody sitting ringside: Refrain from discussing anything sports related. You might distract Mayweather during the fight. Also, don’t talk about the lines at the sportsbook either.
(Chris Shellcroft is the lead blogger for Just Blog Baby, occasional contributor on Lake Show Life and an all around righteous dude. You can follow him on Twitter.)
