Columnist Ron Kantowski: Mandalay Bay employees score big at fight

Tuesday, June 29, 1999 | 9:57 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

If the fight was as good as everybody says, Saturday's bantamweight title bout between Paulie Ayala and Johnny Tapia at Mandalay Bay was a bargain at $50, which is what most of the walk-up crowd paid.

At $4, which is what any Mandalay Bay employee who wanted to see the fight paid for his ticket, it was a steal. It was like walking up to Don King and taking a spare rib off his plate.

(The reason King was late in arriving to last weekend's Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad news conference at the Las Vegas Hilton is that he insisted on stopping at a Los Angeles rib joint before getting on the plane. Honest. Louie Louie, the front man for the Hilton's main lounge act, sang until his vocal chords resembled Bob Dylan's before King finally showed.)

Saturday's fight was promoted by King's rival, Bob Arum. But it was Mandalay Bay management that decided to part with the fight tickets at shrimp cocktail prices when the bout couldn't sell out on its own.

"We wanted to fill it (the Mandalay Bay arena) for TV purposes," resort spokesman Bill Doak said.

The arena was set up for 6,000 spectators and roughly 5,000 were in the house for the bout, which offered more action than a Jackie Chan triple feature at your neighborhood drive-in. Provided your neighborhood still has a drive-in.

At least one Sun reader -- one standing in line behind a guy holding a ticket for one of the cheap seats -- was upset that Mandalay Bay employees were let in for what the tax cost on a normally priced -- er, overpriced -- ticket.

While I'm somewhat sympathetic in regard to his lighter wallet, I look at the ticket offer as nothing more than a perk of working at Mandalay Bay. It's not the first time a host for a sporting event has been guilty of papering the house.

But it'll be the last time it happens at Mandalay Bay for a while. Next up at the resort's Events Center is the De La Hoya-Trinidad blockbuster in September.

On that weekend, the only part of Mandalay Bay that will be papered is the casino walls -- with the $100 bills of its high-rollers.

* ARLISS RENDITION: Las Vegas fight promoter Bob Arum made a cameo appearance as himself in this week's episode of the HBO sitcom "Arliss," a fictional sports agent played by cheeky Robert Wuhl. But unfortunately, that was as real as it got.

The episode, filmed mostly at Mandalay Bay, came off as yet another hatchet job on Las Vegas. The plot centered on a fighter, one of Arliss' clients, who becomes distraught after a physical confrontation with his spouse. He loses the "eye of the tiger" forcing Arliss to resort to underhanded means to postpone the bout.

In a scene right out of the old "Batman" TV series, an employee at the "Nevada Department of Power," at the behest of some wise guy in a pin-striped suit, throws the switch on a gigantic toggle lever, plunging the entire Strip into darkness just as the fight is about to begin.

Every Las Vegas stereotype was used at least once, so perhaps the script writer's tongue was planted firmly inside his cheek. I just hope the guy in Des Moines appreciated the satire.

* AROUND THE HORN: You might have been thrown off by the Kangol, the beret-like cap sometimes sported by Michael Jordan, actor Samuel L. Jackson, rapper LL CoolJ and LeBeau from Hogan's Heroes. But that was UNLV basketball coach Bill Bayno, trying to get chummy with female boxer/Playboy model Mia "The Knockout" St. John, at ringside of Saturday's Paulie Ayala-Johnny Tapia fight at Mandalay Bay. ...

French connection: Surya Bonaly, the former Olympic women's figure skating silver medalist from France, is moving to Las Vegas. Currently the star of Champions on Ice, Bonaly will be based at Las Vegas Ice Gardens, where she will work with local skaters who will compete in the upcoming U.S. Figure Skating Regionals. Bonaly was the first woman to successfully attempt a back flip in competition. She also has been known to wear a beret. ...

Las Vegan Roger Mayweather, the World Boxing Council junior lightweight champion, became the second athlete to sign a promotions deal with Chicago-based Integrated Marketing Solutions. The firm's only other sports client is Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa. ...

The catch phrase at a recent USA Track & Field Association meet at Mojave High School was "look at those mothers go!" Las Vegans Kellie Archuletta, Carla Hoppie, Kim Jefferson and Gail Ledbetter -- all mothers of at least one child -- shattered the Masters Women (ages 30-39) national record in the 4x100 meter relay, clocking a 9:58. The Las Vegas Lizards youth running club provided the structure, support and -- according to a newsletter -- the running bras that made it all possible.