Las Vegas Weekly

March 11, 2010 · 3:45 PM

From the rumble seat: Michael Buffer impressed by the magnitude of it all

By John Katsilometes

Michael Buffer, oddly enough, not wearing a tuxedo.

Photo: John Katsilometes

Michael Buffer has it backward: It seems as if he's only about 30 years old, but has been in the fight game for 65 years.

As it is, the appearances are reversed: Buffer 65 years old and has been in the fight game for about 30 years.

A pugilistic Peter Pan, the ageless-yet-veteran ring announcer was hanging around the Gaylord Texan media center today. He was here not coincidentally, but to take part in the news conference introducing the undercard fighters (or rather, combatants) for Saturday's Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey WBO welterweight championship bout. The fight card begins at 5 p.m. local, or Central, time, and Buffer will be on hand to remind us to be well-prepared for the ensuing rumble.

Given that Buffer has been one of the sport's most famous non-fighting faces since the era of Randall "Tex" Cobb, I asked for his thoughts about Cowboys Stadium's sudden impact on the fight game.

"I think it is so big it can only handle one mega-fight or super-fight a year, maybe once every 18 months," Buffer said, working on a throat lozenge and taking time away from posing for photos. "But what makes it work is that video screen that hangs over the screen. You put 50,000 fight fans in a stadium, and maybe 25,000 don't have a good enough view of the ring to see is really getting in clean shots. But with this, you really do feel like you're part of the action."

Buffer said that fight fans still are eager to be part of major championship fights, even if just to soak up the atmosphere.

"You had fights at places like Yankee Stadium, 50, 60, 70 years ago," he said. "Thousands of people wouldn't be able to see the fighters very well at all, but there were there just to be part of the action."

Is this wanting to be part of the action at a fight outside of Las Vegas going to cut into Vegas' reputation as the world's boxing Mecca? I asked this of Buffer.

"This is such a Texas-sized operation, it's only understandable that would be a concern," Buffer said. "I look at it from a personal standpoint, that it would be a lot easier for me living in L.A. to board the plane in Burbank and make the quick flight to Vegas. I don't know the answer, only that time will tell. I know this: Jerry Jones is unique, he's as cool as James Bond and he has a command of his business. He can step into any arena and succeed."

Feeling a little punchy

Top Rank chief Bob Arum conducted probably 10 one-on-one interviews today and was the emcee for the news conference introducing the undercard lineup, then hung around afterward and talked to anyone who needed his time. Arum, it should be noted, is 78 years old and seemingly tireless. ... A guy who wants Manny Pacquiao to leave the fight game sooner rather than later is his own trainer, Freddie Roach, who ate a lot of leather in his days in the ring and doesn't want to see one of the sport's all-time greats take any needless late-career beatings. ... If anyone is wondering what is going on with the old Cowboys home stadium, the big-ugly Texas Stadium, it is being stripped down and prepared for an April 11 implosion. It sticks out like a giant wart as you drive through nearby Irving. ... Cowboys Stadium is being funded, in part, by a sales-tax increase voters in Arlington approved back in 2004, which kicked in $325 million to the otherwise privately funded $1.2 billion facility. ... This is the first fight in the history of the 160 HBO pay-per-view boxing events to be held in a stadium. ... A guy to love: boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar, who predicts a Pacquiao victory by decision, but adds, "I've been wrong before. I had Japan to win World War II." ... Sugar is wearing wacky pants today; they look like they've been decorated with dozens of tiny steer. ... During a video interview on Wednesday at the Stadium, Jones dropped the name of a single Vegas mogul: Steve Wynn. ... Michael Irvin was not at the news conference today and I, for one, missed him. ... To put the oft-discussed $25 million site fee Jones offered to host the Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather bout in perspective, it's huge for a site fee, but also about what Jones would pay to sign an all-pro offensive tackle.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

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