I was at the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight this past weekend. The crowd was unbelievable in their intensity. I was sitting in the lower 200s which isn't the best place to score a fight, but from there I had JMM up a few points. After the decision was read the Pacquiao fans seemed to be more relieved than ecstatic. The fight was close and could have gone either way, but they knew they dodged a bullet.
This was my second trip to Vegas for a major fight, with Mayweather-Judah having been the other one. It was my first time taking in the full experience however, and I truly understand why Vegas casinos spend the money they do on site fees. All weekend the casino was crawling with fight fans at the tables and in the sports book. You seemingly couldn't see a table without at least one Pacquiao fan. The overpriced ($13 for a tuna sandwich) restaurants in the Mandalay Bay were packed, and after the fight you had 11,000 people pour into the casino. This doesn't even include the increased room rates for a fight weekend. When all is said and done, the casino has to be making out handsomely on a successful fight such as Pac-JMM II. While I would love to see more fights in cities other than Vegas, one trip is all it takes to realize that Vegas is going nowhere, and would be stupid to do so. As Money May likes to say, if it makes dollars, it makes sense.
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