Columnist Dean Juipe: Downtown boxing card is a hit

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, June 6, 2001 | 10:58 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Wearing his biggest smile even when he wasn't in the ring enjoying his celebrity status, Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman was predictably pleased at seeing a professional boxing card find its way not only downtown but outside and underneath the Fremont Street Experience.

"This is a very important night, as far as I'm concerned," Goodman said. "This is what Las Vegas is all about.

"I'm extremely excited about everything I've seen. The prices are reasonable and it's an idea that looks to be catching on just fine."

Goodman, of course, champions any cause that shows downtown Las Vegas in a favorable light. And Tuesday night's boxing card, topped by Frans Botha's victory over David Bostice in the heavyweight main event, allowed him to feel good about an area of the city that he acknowledges is his pet project.

Not everything about downtown is rosy, but the card came off without a hitch and most of the 1,500 folding chairs that surrounded a ring that sat at the intersection of 1st and Fremont were filled. In addition, seemingly hundreds of additional (non-paying) fans lined the fence that separated the paying customers from the merely curious.

Critics say downtown businesses, including the Fremont Street Experience, are frequently indecisive when it comes to making decisions. But the casinos agreed to jointly partner this endeavor, in part because of Goodman's input and in part because of the persuasive efforts of the card's de facto promoter, Sterling McPherson.

"Oscar had been telling me to bring him a fight card," McPherson said. "He said, 'You've got to help me with the Fremont Street Experience.'

"They were leery about it at first. But I told them it was going to be fascinating and it was going to be great exposure on national TV, and that the city would benefit.

"There's a chain of command down here that's sort of tricky, and there's always a little of this and a little of that that you don't expect. But it was all worth it."

McPherson wasn't gloating, but, rightfully, he could have.

"I think, if nothing else, we proved that the Fremont Street businesses can step up and take a fight card that might otherwise be going out of town," he said.

While the heat of the mid-summer months of July and August might preclude hosting an outdoor card, this one went over well in spite of the trepidations expressed by those involved in its planning. ESPN chipped in with a $50,000 site fee (that more or less found its way to the fighters) and even if the event lost a few bucks it had to be worth it in terms of national publicity.

When asked about the reluctance of the Fremont Street Experience (as an entity) to work for a common good, Goodman admitted such problems can and do exist.

"But we did it here," he said, referring to the fact the card came off as scheduled, "and that's the beautiful thing."

It was the first-ever outdoors card held downtown, and it shouldn't be the last. And even if its uniqueness runs the risk of wearing off, an occasional boxing card has its merits.

Give the opening night show not only a passable grade, but perhaps an A.

Goodman wasn't the only one smiling.