The weird and wacky moments that make up a week in Las Vegas for the Tim Tszyu vs. Sebastian Fundora rematch
Even by boxing standards, the past week in Las Vegas leading into Tszyu-Fundora 2 has been bizarre and fascinating. Brendan Bradford highlights some of the weird and wacky moments.
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We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the jet lag began to take hold.
That’ll happen when your connecting flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is delayed by 10 hours and you’re forced to hire a rental car from LAX and make the 461km drive to Sin City to make a Tim Tszyu media session on time.
Right from the start, this has been a bizarre and fascinating fight week. Even by boxing standards.
From interstate Ubers, to mistaken identity, here’s a quick rundown of some of the wackiest moments of the Tszyu-Fundora 2 build-up.
Mase’s long distance Uber
While I drove a group of five media types across the desert to Vegas when our flight out of LA was delayed, former NRL enforcer Willie Mason wasn’t about to risk jet lag catching up with him halfway across.
Mase – who has joined the travelling media circus to promote the fight via his Levels social media network – and his mate and producer Luke Stowe, booked an Uber, bought some beers and cruised into fight week in style.
It only cost the big man $350, which is about the same as our rental car.
Bomber photo-bombed on live TV
The great Courier Mail scribe Pete ‘Bomber’ Badel narrowly escaped a drunken drongo trying to crash his live cross on Fox Sports on Thursday night.
Bomber was mid-broadcast alongside Megan Barnard, Nikita Tszyu and George Rose on Fremont Street when the drunkest man in Nevada attempted to barge his way in and get some screen time.
He was swiftly dealt with by some fast-acting members of Tszyu’s team, before he could crash-tackle the on air talent.
“The boys are getting into me for yelling, ‘Help, help!’ on live TV,” Badel said. “I needed (ring announcer) Steve Peios to come and save me!”
We’re told Barnard, Rose and Tszyu kept much cooler heads.
That wasn’t the only broadcast drama in fight week, with a heavily intoxicated lady vomiting on The Strip near the Bellagio fountain just as Ben Damon, Tim Tszyu, Denan Kemp and George Rose were about to film an interview.
Bomb squad
Matt Burton, eat your heart out.
No Limit media man Tim Ashworth – who was the Sea Eagles’ media manager in a past life, and still gets a run for Merewether Carlton – couldn’t help but show off his sixth tackle high ball chops at Fremont Street on Thursday.
Moments after Bomber Badel’s brush with an inebriated lunatic, Ashworth spied a Steeden that had been used for an earlier photo shoot.
“I reckon I could hit the roof here,” he told a journo.
“No chance,” our media man replied. “You don’t have it in ya.”
Got him hook, line and sinker.
Ashworth cleared some space and sent a bomb to the heavens that Matt Burton would be proud of.
It only fell short of hitting the roof by metres, with Sporting News journo Tom Naghten showing a safe pair of hands under the high ball.
Ab work waits for no man
Nikita Tszyu is a bit different. He’ll tell you that upfront. He’ll show you too.
Like when Fox Sports’ Nick Walshaw and I pulled out our recorders to interview The Butcher after he’d finished training on Tuesday.
Well, we thought he’d finished anyway.
“Let’s do the interview while I do my sit-ups,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”
He’s also a strong-willed character, so there was no talking him out of it.
I once interviewed a UFC fighter on Zoom while he was in the shower, but this one tops it.
Manny the music man
He’s an eight division world champion, a former Senator and a man of the people.
But Manny Pacquiao also an avid musician and took time out of preparing for his fight with Mario Barrios to tickle the ivories.
See Manny playing Let it Be in the player above.
Fortune favours the bold
Pacquiao’s veteran Aussie trainer, Justin Fortune, didn’t hold back when asked about Team Barrios’ claims they’re being disrespected by the Filipino icon.
As with most disagreements in boxing, the bust-up seems fairly trivial, but Fortune – never one to mince his words – hit back strongly.
“F**k them. Disrespect? You’re getting the chance to fight a legend, how the f**k is that disrespect?” he asked Code Sports.
“Don’t bitch and complain, cowboy the f**k up!”
No idea what that means, but you’ve gotta love an Aussie saying it like it is.
Just another missed call
Spare a thought for this poor bloke who was conducting a video interview with Jeff Mayweather –Floyd’s uncle – on his phone when he received a call.
He frantically tried sending it to voicemail while Mayweather kept speaking, but he might’ve missed the hottest of hot takes.
Tim’s cheesy turn of phrase
Tim Tszyu has always had an interesting turn of phrase, but this must be one of his best.
When describing Fundora’s power – or lack thereof – he said the Towering Inferno’s punches feel “like a cheese stick constantly whipping you.”
A true wordsmith.
Mistaken identity
Shout out to a man named Ortega, who I believe works for one of the TV networks over here. He introduced himself to me after the press conference on Thursday and we started talking.
I only realised it was a case of mistaken identity on his part later, when he started talking about visual assets for broadcast on fight night.
I don’t know who you emailed those files to, but I hope it all works out, mate!
Rubbed the wrong way
Which media type was spotted waddling through The New York New York with horrendous chafing after sweating too much in the 40-degree Las Vegas weather?
Originally published as The weird and wacky moments that make up a week in Las Vegas for the Tim Tszyu vs. Sebastian Fundora rematch
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