(DEC 9) My continuing Behind the
Scenes in New Mexico....The following morning I met up with Amy
Greene and lo' and behold it was snowing! I was told it was 12
degrees outside, and had no idea it was going to be this chilly in
New Mexico!
I then went back to
my room and tried to update WBAN on a laptop with the hotel's
wi-fi system---Not an easy task to do from my room!
At about 1:00 p.m. I received a phone call from WBAN's European
Correspondent, John Wilson, of London, England. John
had just arrived at the airport to let me know he was on his way
to the hotel. He knew that he was on crunch-time due to the
weigh-in starting at 2:00 p.m., at the Isleta Casino & Resort.
Knowing he would be arriving at the hotel at anytime, I
headed down to the lobby to greet him upon his arrival.
As Amy Greene and I
were talking to each other in the lobby, there was a man sitting in
front of one of the lobby computers. We found out
that he was actually connected with the boxing event, Lee Peters of the NABF,
and we introduced ourselves.
In the meantime,
Team Warner came into the lobby, and I had the pleasure of
meeting Hector Roca, and
Dillon Carew, a retired pro boxer from Guyana, who had fought in
the 1992 Olympics, and is training boxers out of Gleason's Gym in
New York. [Carew has fought nearly everywhere, doing battle
in Europe, Africa, the United States, Canada and Barbados. He
has fought six world champions including Ricky Hatton, Meldrick
Taylor, Moses James, Leonard Dorin and DeMarcus Corley (twice).
quoted from doghouseboxing.com]
Suszannah was the
last one down into the lobby, before we all piled into one
shuttle to make our way to the Isleta Casino.
ARRIVING AT THE WEIGH-IN - DEC. 3
When we first arrived at the casino, there
was hardly any fighters as of yet that had arrived.
Surprisingly, Holly Holm was one of the first, and so I grabbed
her quickly to get her to sign photos and the special boxing
glove that I wanted all the fighters to sign, whether they were
on the card or not.
I took advantage of
the downtime before the actual weigh-in and took miscellaneous
photos of fighters that were just behind the scenes waiting
for the weigh-in to begin.
Next major player on
the boxing card, Team Hernandez made their way down to
the weigh-in area.
Upon meeting Belinda Laracuente and Melissa Hernandez for the
first time, I asked both to sign an array of 8x10's that I had
as give-a-ways for boxing fans, who had entered our boxing
memorabilia free give-a-way contest.
After Hernandez
pretty much captivated everyone around her (including me), she
finally got all the memorabilia signed, and as she was signing
the boxing glove I handed her, I told her she was a "Bad Girl"
and telling her that she needed to get on the reality show "Bad
Girls Club." (A show that I watch on occasion and is (I hate
to confess) one of my guilty pleasures in life).
Hernandez responded
to me about the show, and said, "Oh, Really?" and I said, to her
"Yeah, I am serious" you need to get on that show and told her
that she would be perfect with her outgoing personality. So just
like Lucia Rijker, who I gave her an unofficial ring name of "Rijker
Striker" in the late 1990's, I in essence gave Hernandez an
unofficial title by WBAN as "Bad Girl".
THE WEIGH-IN
BEGINS
The main event -
Holm and Hernandez, was called up first after a brief
introduction of the event. Lenny Fresquez announces that
there were 200 tickets left for the event.
The first to weigh-in was Melissa Hernandez. Hernandez
weighed in at 134 3/4; Holly Holm, 140.5. (Holm
was .5 lb. over the weight limit, as I found out a little later).
The next to weigh-in
was Suzsannah Warner vs. Jodi Esquibel who were scheduled to
fight in the co-main. Warner weighed in at 101.5 lbs.; Esquibel
102.5. (.5 lb over the weigh-in).
Lastly on the
undercard for the women's bouts Jessica Sanchez weighed in
at 128 1/4, and Amanda Crespin, 124.5.
Just as they were
wrapping up the weigh-in, and an announcer (I didn't know who he
was) talked about when the rules meeting would be, etc.
Hernandez spoke up and said, "Excuse me, what about the half
pound?"
At that time, I could not hear what was said at the podium
because they were not near the mic, and had no idea what was
going on.
It was a short time later, maybe 45 minutes, could have been a
shorter time, as I was still lingering in the area of the
weigh-in talking with a lot of people, Holly Holm, and Jodi
Esquibel entered the area in white robes, and they went up to
the scales to re-weigh. Both made weight with Holm coming
in at 139.4, and Esquibel 101.5.
Some of the "Behind the Scenes" photos up to the end of
weigh-in.
PART III - The Night of the
Card - Will post (hopefully) tomorrow!
