New York New York & Manny Pacquiao

My last trip to Vegas was such a fun experience. It was so much fun and could have been the best Vegas Trip I've had in a long time if only my wife lady could have made the trip out.

Keven and I made the journey Thursday night after work as the rest of the group (Andrew, his kick ass father - Matt, and Dylan) were planning on coming out Friday evening. We got to town fairly late, especially since I had worked an 11 hour day starting at 4am, so we didn't do much but sleep. We stayed at my fall back hotel, The Stratosphere. This room was actually much nicer then the last room I stayed at, even though the last time I paid more for the "upgraded" room. So day one ended after the long car ride and sleep.

On Friday we got up and went down to the Luxor for some brunch. We then spend the next six hours sight seeing and gambling between the MGM Grand, Hooters, Planet Hollywood, NY NY, and Excalibur. Keven and I got a call from Andrew about 6pm saying they just checked in to the NY NY Hotel. Keven and I grabbed our recently won cash (BLACK 13) and headed back to the NY NY. Andrew's father Matt must be some Vegas high roller. They placed us in a pretty nice room (for free) right next to Matt's suite (free) and gave us a free "VIP" card that let us in the guest lounge and gave us free snacks and such. They also gave us 4 tickets to the Manny Pacquiao VS Ricky Hatton fight for Saturday night, which if you read my last blog is the reason we made this trip! For dinner Matt took us out dinner at Gallagher's, which is a pretty pricey Steak House in the NY NY. We ate like Kings and the rest of them drank like it too. Our tab came back just under $600 w/ tip! Matt covered us all. He was so generous on this trip, and it was real nice to talk to him and to get to know him! The rest of the night was spent on roulette, watching the boys get drunk, and walking miles.

Saturday was fight day! We slept in a little this morning, except Keven, who was up by 6am everyday regardless of how much he drank, or how late he stayed out. He's a machine. We ate lunch at the food court across from the NY NY. I watched my skinny brother put down a Bacon Burger, two Chili Dogs, a small fry, a soda, a slice of pizza, and most of Andrew's Panda Express meal. Yet after I ate my one Bacon Burger and fry, my ass again grew an inch... So after lunch we got our tickets! They were good seats valued at $300 and yet again because of Matt, we went FREE! The boxing event actually started around 2:30pm even though the PPV doesn't air until 6. Andrew and I went as soon as the doors opened and watched all the fights! Keven arrived a few hours later, and Dylan made it for the two important fights.

The Fights. Wow. I'm not a boxing fan by any stretch, but this was so much fun! I had a great time with Andrew watching something that is so important to who he is. During the first under card fight the arena was pretty empty, but slowly the seats were filling. By the end of the night the stadium was rocking! I'd say 80% of the 17,000+ fans were from England. The Champion, Ricky Hatton had the arena packed with crazy fans. They sang all night, even during the other fights. Singing songs to the tune of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland", the Brit's would express their favor of Hatton. They brought instruments and played along. We were surrounded by soccer hooligans. Bad part was that we are all Manny Pacquiao fans and we thought we may get cracked in the head because of the stuff we were screaming! Hundreds of celebrities came to the fight, including names like: Christian Bale, Mike Tyson, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Michael Strahan (which is another story I'll tell later), and Tony Gonzales to name just a small few. Anyhow, the fights were all cool, but the main event was nuts. Little Manny Pacquiao came out and knocked Hatton on his butt twice in the first round before knocking him cold in the second round. Game over. Good night. We jumped in our seats hurling praise to Manny and jokes and laughs at Hatton and his army of Brits. We all became adopted by the Filipinos as we were like the only 4 white dudes jeering Hatton. This experience was amazing!

The next morning Andrew, Matt, and Dylan headed straight home. I took Keven to Toby Keith's bar. We ate a monster burger, Keven got hit on by the hostess (whom I gave Keven's number too) and made the trip home for ourselves. Keven wanted to speed home without breaking any laws, so he refused to stop. By the time we made it to Salt Lake, he made me promise not to laugh if he pee'd his pants. He made it to my house in time to avoid the embarrassment...Damn! Keven had so much fun, he's going back tomorrow. For me, I count down the days to Boston and to New York City!