Posted by Kieran Mulvaney
Friday, 12:10 ET -- Anybody home?
It's a strange thing. The press room is buzzing, packed with reporters from the U.K. For the first time ever at a fight, I heard a TV reporter doing a stand-up (talking to the camera) in Cymraeg (that's the Welsh language, a form of Gaelic, to you and me).
But outside the press area, the atmosphere in Planet Hollywood is … eh. I mean, it's Las Vegas, so there's never a shortage of bodies and excitement. But, honestly, it feels like a normal week in Sin City. Other than the advertisements throughout the casino, you wouldn't even know it was fight week.
I think there are a couple of reasons for that.
First, there just aren't as many supporters here as there were for, say, Hatton-Mayweather. And I think that's because (a) well, a bunch of people were just here for that fight and there are only so many Las Vegas trips a person can afford; (b) Joe Calzaghe doesn't have quite the rabid fan base that Ricky Hatton has; and (c) Bernard Hopkins has never been able to draw flies.
At the same time, ticket prices for tomorrow night are pretty high.
But there are also supposed to be more Calzaghe fans than there were Hatton fans for either of the Hitman's pre-Mayweather Vegas bouts last year, and the noise and atmosphere at those bouts was greater than it has felt so far this week. I think that's because Hatton's Manchester army is, frankly, a much more hard-core bunch. Those guys are loud and louder, not least because they hit the bars the moment they wake up. The Welsh contingent seems a little quieter, more happy just to be here.
I'm also not sure that everyone is staying at Planet Hollywood. There are quite a few Brits wandering up and down the Strip, and it may be that the first real taste of how popular this fight is will come at the weigh-in, when everyone will congregate at the same place for the first time. Then we'll know.
-- Kieran Mulvaney
