The tumbleweed is not rolling down The Strip here the way it did through the dusty frontier towns of America’s old wild west.
Not yet. Not quite. Not with a big old-fashioned fight about to fill the new Allegiant Stadium, which is home to the Raiders football team following its relocation from Los Angeles.
But the warning signs are flashing with greater frequency most days and nights now than brake lights along the once log-jammed Las Vegas Boulevard.
Tens of thousands of fully documented Mexicans are flooding across the southern border to take in a so-called Fight Of The Century while celebrating their national Independence Day.
But for them this Saturday night in Sin City would be about as raunchy as afternoon tea in dear genteel Bath. America would do well to recognise the irony.
Vegas, for one, is grateful to a notable southern neighbour for keep bringing his world championship brilliance and his faithful following to the aid of its ailing economy.
Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford are set to do battle in a fight that has been dubbed ‘The Fight of the Century’
Canelo is reported to be receiving a purse of $120 million and is the favourite to claim victory
Twice a year – each September and for the Ciinco de Mayo patriotic remembrance of a fabled battle – Saul Canelo Alvarez rejuvenates the life, clamour, excitement, glamour and high-rolling cash upon which this city was built.
This time Canelo’s bequest is the long awaited Fight Of The Century against Terence Crawford in which he will defend his undisputed world super-middleweight championship.
The Mexican idol and the Nebraskan who is recognised as the outstanding American boxer of his generation are not only disputing historic ring supremacy. They are fighting for the image – perhaps even the future – of this oasis of fun in the desert.
So vital is this fist-fight in the not-so-OK corral that Vegas is gambling all-in. Canelo, as the star attraction, is reported to be receiving a purse of $120million. Crawford -who is about as exciting inside and outside the ring as a the Reuben Sandwich for which his native city of Omaha is most famous – $35million.
Of late a 30 per cent decline in tourism, hotel occupancy, restaurant reservations, show tickets sales and flights into McCarran airport has paused only for fight weekends, the Las Vegas Formula One Grand Prix and to a lesser extent Raiders home games.
Vegas has by no means recovered from Covid. Other fingers of blame are pointed at US inflation, soaring prices, the abandonment of bargain all-you-can eat buffets, a reduction in bonus gift vouchers to regular gamblers. Yet, even as trebling costs drive out the less wealthy visitors, this spoiled town seems unable to comprehend the law of diminishing returns.
The price of a ticket for the newest show-place – the dramatic Sphere immersive wrap-around dome – keeps increasing by the thousand dollars. Meanwhile row-upon-row of slot machines in the major resort casinos stand still and silent as one-armed guards at a funeral.
Can Canelo and Bud Crawford send out a dramatic message that Vegas is still open for entertainment and thrills? The clash of styles – the punching power and insatiable hunger of a true Mexican warrior against the high technical class of an old-school educated American boxer – are a promising basis for them to go to work.
Crawford is three years older and has a shorter and less taxing resume containing mostly cherry-picked opponents
But both are in the closing phase of their careers. Crawford, three years the elder at 38 later this month, has a shorter and less taxing resume containing mostly cherry-picked opponents. And the biggest name on his record, Errol Spence Jr, was a relic after almost dying in a somersaulting crash of his expensive sports car.
Officially Alavarez has fought 26 more times and his resume is filled with big names. And that head count does not include an estimated 15-20 unlicensed victories as a young boy prior to turning professional in January 2006. With the latter part of his career played out mostly in fabled arenas and packed stadia he suspects he will hold a psychological advantage over an opponent who has boxed mostly in the comfort zone of his Nebraska home, saying: ‘Bud could freeze.’
Crawford may also be ring-rusty, having fought only once in the last three years. His backers make much of Canelo looking less formidable of late than during the course of becoming the first Mexican to claim world titles in five different weight divisions. Yet while he did seem undermotivated in his most recent win over the lightly regarded William Scull in Saudi Arabia this May, Crawford looked worse in his last fight in August 2024 when being gifted a dubious decision over Israil Madrimov. Also that may be a more pertinent indicator of the outcome. This was Crawford’s first bout after vacating his long-held welterweight titles and even then was only at super-welterweight.
In reality he is climbing two divisions and one stone seven pounds for by far the biggest purse of his life. That has required significant bulking. To what effect? Some topless pictures in training show him carrying not just a six pack on his belly but a 12-pack of new muscle and with arms bulging like ripe melons. Maybe the photographs are generated by artificial intelligence as part of a mind game. If real, any extra power against the naturally stronger Alvarez may have come at the cost of speed and movement which are his supposed advantages.
During the build up Bud has been the favoured boy of Turki Alalshikh who brings the financial power of his Riyadh Season to Vegas as part of the promtion. But that patronage applies the psychological pressure to Crawford of His Excellency’s demand that fighters who want his money must cut out what he calls ‘those Tom and Jerry’ scientific boxing matches and go for knock-outs, which in turn will deliver a hefty bonus.
Coming to a prediction requires answering the 147 pounds and one million dollars questions. For my rather lesser money expect Canelo to brush aside the educated Crawford jab, batter Bud’s swollen body, then hammer out a victory for the ages. By late stoppage or solid decision.
By tradition, what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas. On this occasion, from the moguls of the mega-resort casinos to the local small business owners they are all praying at that Little White Chapel for a fight so historic that it broadcasts to the universe that Sin City is back and ready to reclaim from Riyadh the deeds to the Fight Capital Of The World. And that any desert tumbleweed is blown off their neon Strip.
