Isn't this supposed to be No Fun November? That's certainly what I thought this morning. The forecast of rain had preemptively dampened my mood, and I had already accepted the fact that I'd have to work most of the weekend, in a grit-your-teeth, get-stuck-in kind of way. I was also already pretty tired, having gotten up at 7:30 to help man our fundraising event for USC Boxing. And so I trudged into the all-too-familiar confines of the law library on this, a bleak Saturday morning, resigned to putting in a solid six hours or so into reading and outlining before watching what was likely to be a one-sided beating in the form of a boxing mismatch.
To borrow one of Larry Merchant's quotes, though: we live in the “theatre of the unexpected.” The dreaded rain never materialized, so after an hour of studying I decided to head down to the tailgate to grab a quick bite. Of course, they were pretty much out of food but had plenty of beer (on a somewhat related note, I've had way too much free beer these past two days). After a few more drinks, some conversation, and a little peer pressure, I decided to make the only rational and responsible choice I had as a USC student – my half-hour study break turned into attending my first USC football game. Oops.
It was a lot of fun and definitely a good time, and I got to hang out with the 2Ls while Nima walked me through the rules and rituals of a USC football game. I'm not the biggest fan of American football, but it was fun to experience the event, and I was impressed by the passion and fervor of the crowd. It's probably the closest thing to an American equivalent of soccer matches in most parts of the world. The game itself was entertaining – especially the trick plays that USC ran – but the huge lead meant that by later in the second half, both the drama and the crowd had started to evaporate.
We left in the fourth quarter with the score at 40-10 and I silently hoped that it wouldn't be a foreshadowing of the Pacquiao fight at night. After picking up some of the guys on the USC Boxing team and briefly waging war on my mortal enemy (aka LA traffic), we finally got to Hollywood. The Montalbán is a theatre with an old and decorated history in Los Angeles, but still a relatively small building; it didn't catch my eye when we got there and were trying to figure out where to go. It turned out to be pretty simple though: just follow everyone else. A huge line of people of all shapes, sizes, and colors clad in their assortment of red and blue Manny Pacquiao gear allowed me to make the Holmesian deduction that we had arrived at the right place. Apparently they had been lining up for hours before the doors even opened at 7pm. I overheard one of the Nike staff say that over 1600 people had “RSVP'd” on Facebook to try to get in.
Luckily, as members of the USC Boxing Team we had been specially invited by a Nike rep (Nike Boxing sponsors only one fighter – Pacquiao) and got to stand in the thankfully far shorter VIP line. As we were waiting for the doors to open, a huge Nike Sportswear customization truck was parked in front, stocked with customizable MP product. Some of the things they were selling were the Pacquiao Air Trainer 1.3 Max Breathe ($175) and an rumored and exclusive Nike MP hoodie, of which only 111 were made and one of which Manny wore to the weigh-in yesterday. To purchase it, you had to be present at one of the four locations across the country selling it on fight night and be willing to part with a cool $250 to get it. Of course, they were sold out long before we got there, but I did end up getting a Pacquiao t-shirt, dropping $30 like a high roller.
We got in right away through the VIP line and wandered throughout the place, which was decked out in Pacquiao memorabilia: shoes, gloves, hoodies, robes, championship belts, bags, framed pictures, and much more. There was an unlimited amount of free vitamin water, smart water, and other bottled beverages, but when we went up to the VIP lounge area, we found out they had a bar serving free beer! There was food, of course, along with a DJ, and other forms of entertainment/promotion. There was a photobooth where you could take a picture with the same background as Manny's photo in the promotion poster, and computers set up where you could play around with NikeID and customize different Nike gear.
We finally made our way to the second floor at the VIP seating area and sat down facing a huge HD screen flanked by two smaller ones. We caught the end of the Breidis “the Khanqueror” Prescott vs. Mike Alvarado, which was a great fight. Alvarado came from behind to rally and knock Prescott out with a series of vicious uppercuts, and the action fight pumped up everyone watching. The atrocious Bradley-Casamayor bout slightly deflated the atmosphere until it was mercifully stopped by the ref in the 7th. It's sickening to think that Bradley earned $1.1 million for this “fight” as a contractual HBO comeback date (and making it from the pay-per-views) when he turned down a much better offer to fight Khan in July.
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