By Cassandra Cousineau for LVSportsBiz.com
Raiders football is not the only big sport set to make a big splash in Las Vegas in 2020.
Las Vegas stands to be the winner of the sweepstakes for the biggest boxing match of the new decade.
Only a ring appearance by Floyd Mayweather would usurp the popularity of a monster fight between heavyweights Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury in a championship rematch. Wilder’s win against Luis Ortiz Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena sealed the Wilder-Fury slugfest.
Naturally, the monster match would assume the effervescent and funny Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs) has sufficiently healed from the 47 stitches sustained above his right eye during his September fight with Sweden’s Otto Wallin. Both T-Mobile Arena and the MGM Garden are in play to host Wilder-Fury on February 22, 2020.
“Next we have Tyson Fury in the rematch, It’s scheduled for February, so we’ll see. Then I want unification. I want one champion, one face and one heavyweight champion. The heavyweight division is too small, there should be one champion and it’s Deontay Wilder,” Wilder stated after his win.
Presumably, Wilder is referencing a unification fight with the winner of the Andy Ruiz vs Anthony Joshua fight set to take place in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 7. The rematch is for Ruiz’s WBA (Super) , IBF, and IBO belts he grabbed in a shocking upset of Joshua in June of this year.
Fury’s trainer, Ben Davidson, and cut man. Jorge Capetillo. were on hand for most of fight week scouting Wilder. Fury took notice from afar.
Fury’s two Las Vegas fights of 2019 have garnered in the neighborhood of 14,000 fans in attendance at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and a combined live gate just under $2 million.
The Manchester, England-born Fury (29-0-1 , 20 KOs) has fully embraced his residency stateside in Sin City. For the foreseeable future when he’s fighting, he’s stated, he will be fighting in Las Vegas It’s a short build up until February, but the fight has technically been on the books since the first scrap in December of 2018, co-promoted by Vegas based Top Rank Boxing.
As of Monday morning, Premier Boxing Championship (PBC) hadn’t confirmed its live gate revenue, attendance, or PPV numbers. The Nevada State Athletic Commission gives promoters up to 10 days to submit the gate results.
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The Las Vegas-based promotion, Top Rank Boxing, will close out 2019 in Las Vegas with a Thanksgiving weekend card. The event will be hosted at The Chelsea inside of the Cosmopolitan on the Strip Saturday.
Kicked off by last week’s Wilder vs Ortiz heavyweight card, the final event of back-to-back boxing in Las Vegas is headlined by Oscar Valdez (25-0, 20 KOs). The 28-year-old former WBO featherweight world champion makes his highly anticipated debut at 130 pounds as a super featherweight against Andrés ‘Jaguarcito’ Gutiérrez (38-2-1). The co-main event features the return of Carl Frampton (26-2-0) who is looking to become the first Irishman to win world titles in three weight classes.
Looking back ten years, some things have changed in boxing while others have not. The fact that the Top Rank card will be streamed on ESPN+ and not Pay-Per-View marks a huge step forward in terms of the sport growing in fan acquisition and viewership.
Back in 2009, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao were the two most prominent names on the boxing landscape. A decade later, not much has changed. At the time, Mayweather returned from his first retirement and 21-month layoff from the sport. He came back to fight Juan Manuel Márquez Sept. 19 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Also, in 2009, a 30-year-old Pacquiao earned signature wins against Ricky Hatten followed by Miguel Cotto at the MGM Nov. 4. He went on to be named Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year. The senator from the Philippines was subsequently named Fighter of the Decade in 2010.
As previously announced, UFC and USADA, along with independent experts and consultants, have been reviewing the UFC Anti-Doping Policy to ensure it remains a reliable and effective tool to combat doping in MMA and to protect UFC athletes that compete in the Octagon. This review is now complete, and UFC and USADA have agreed to make several significant changes to the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, including with respect to decision concentration levels and certified supplements.
The UFC Anti-Doping Policy now incorporates the “UFC Prohibited List”, which sets forth decision concentration levels, or thresholds, for various substances that have been proven, on a scientific and evidentiary basis, to be regularly found as contaminants at levels that would not provide an athletic performance enhancing benefit. If an athlete’s positive test is of one of these substances at a level below the decision concentration level, the athlete’s sample will be treated as an atypical finding under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, rather than an adverse analytical finding. Absent other evidence of doping, such an atypical finding will not result in a sanction against the athlete.
Additionally, the UFC Anti-Doping Policy now provides additional clarity on the issue of supplement and environmental contaminants. All UFC athletes will be directed to use only those supplements certified by one of the following accredited certification agencies:
(1) NSF Certified For Sport
(2) Kolner Liste (Cologne List)
(3) Informed Sport Trusted by Sport
(4) HASTA (Human and Supplement Testing Australia)
(5) BSCG (Banned Substance Control Group)
Absent other evidence of doping, where an athlete’s positive sample is caused by either a certified supplement, or other environmental contamination (such as food, water or prescription medication), the athlete will not be sanctioned under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy. In addition, as previously announced, UFC has partnered with supplement provider Thorne to provide UFC athletes with certified supplements through the UFC Performance Institute. Together with a personalized nutrition program developed by UFC’s renowned sport dietitians, UFC athletes may obtain safe and high quality supplements to support their unique needs.
“Putting forth a fair anti-doping program with due process protection is integral to having a strong and comprehensive program,” said UFC Senior VP of Athlete Health and Performance, Jeff Novitzky. “A combination of the pervasiveness of low level contaminates in our environment and the increased levels of testing sensitivity of anti-doping laboratories has created an explicit need for decision concentration levels to ensure that the program is penalizing intentional cheaters and not those athletes who have been faithfully adhering to the anti-doping policy.”
Added Hunter Campbell, UFC Chief Business Officer, “UFC and USADA remain committed to the dynamic landscape of anti-doping and will continue to comprehensively review the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, together with independent experts and state athletic commissions, to ensure it remains the most effective and comprehensive anti-doping program in all of professional sports and provides fairness and due process to all UFC athletes.”