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Welterweight fight doing heavyweight business
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad are a couple of welterweights doing heavyweight numbers.
At a time when boxing was supposed to be on the ropes, De La Hoya and Trinidad may generate some $80 million in revenue when they step into the ring Saturday night in a welterweight title fight so intriguing even this city's odds makers can't figure out a winner.
From the gambling houses on the Las Vegas Strip to the prisons of Puerto Rico, the rare match-up of unbeaten champions is the most anticipated non-heavyweight fight since Sugar Ray Leonard met the likes of Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns in the 1980s.
The fight is so big that the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino didn't even bother to sell tickets to the general public. All 11,610 seats were quickly taken by hotels offering them to their biggest gamblers.
"This thing is a monster," promoter Bob Arum said. "The Hispanic community is at a fever pitch over this, and it's selling well everywhere else too."
De La Hoya is a slight 6-5 favourite over Tito Trinidad, but both fighters will come out winners with some of the biggest purses ever paid outside a Mike Tyson fight.
De La Hoya is guaranteed at least $21 million -- even more if the pay-per-view sales are as good as expected -- while Trinidad will get at least $10.5 million for the scheduled 12-round fight that will unify the IBF and WBC versions of the 147-pound title.
The casinos figure to make even more, with high-rollers flocking to town on a Mexican independence day weekend to watch a Mexican-American champion facing Puerto Rico's biggest sports hero.
"Sports crowds in general gamble more money and fight crowds in particular are known to gamble even more," said Rob Powers, spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "In addition to that, the media exposure Las Vegas gets is invaluable. You can't even calculate it."
Promoters are hoping more than one million homes spent $49.95 US to get the pay-per-view telecast of the fight, and demand is so great in Las Vegas alone that it will be shown on closed-circuit TV at various hotels to another 30,000 people paying $50 a ticket.
In Puerto Rico, which has only 220,000 homes capable of ordering pay-per-view, a quarter of them had already bought it by the beginning of the week and more than half were expected to watch it by fight time.
The Puerto Rican government said it would foot the bill to have the fight on 16 TV sets at the capital building for 8,000 poor residents to watch the match. Four prisons are also showing it as a reward for good behaviour.
Local radio stations have dubbed it "Tito fever" and the fight has become a matter of national pride to the country.
"We're going to celebrate in Puerto Rico on Saturday night," Trinidad promised this week. "It will be the biggest party ever."
While Trinidad is huge in the Puerto Rican market, De La Hoya is a proven pay-per-view fighter whose movie-star looks and flashy smile draw screaming Mexican-American girls to his appearances. The 1992 Olympic gold medallist was born and raised in East Los Angeles.
"Oscar's fights have primarily attracted the Mexican market, but Trinidad brings tremendous buys among people of Puerto Rican heritage," Arum said.
Though not matching the 1.9 million pay-per-view buys of the second Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield heavyweight fight, De La Hoya's 1997 fight with Pernell Whitaker was bought by 800,000 households. He has generated $150 million in revenue in seven pay-per-view fights, according to TVKO, the HBO arm that does the pay-per-view.
"If Oscar wins this fight, he'll be the biggest thing in boxing in decades," said HBO executive Lou DiBella, who helped arrange the fight.
In an era where few champions ever meet each other and the major titles are so fragmented that only the most ardent boxing fans know who holds titles, the fact two undefeated fighters in their prime are fighting makes the bout even more unusual.
Trinidad is 35-0 with 30 knockouts, while De La Hoya is 31-0 with 25 knockouts. Both are 26, and both are big punchers. But both also have suspect chins, and have gone down in their careers.
That's the reason the fight is almost even at sports books, where millions of dollars are expected to be bet on both fighters.
"We're getting more and more by the hour," said Vinny Magliulo, who runs the Caesars Palace sports book. "This fight will be one of the highest, if not the highest, bet non-heavyweight fights ever."
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