Daily Archives: April 10, 2010

Decrepit Boxers Holyfield & Botha Prance in Las Vegas Ring Tonight

The “reveal” update:  Last night the 47-year-old Holyfield (43-10-2, 28 KOs) knocked out 41-year-old Frans Botha with 2:05 left in the eighth round Saturday night. Holyfield (43-10-2) knocked the defending champion down 31 seconds earlier with a right to the old guy’s chin.

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Some professional boxers just refuse to give up- or, perhaps, they can’t afford to.  

American heavyweight boxer Evander Holyfield, left in photo, 47, squares off tonight with almost equally aged foe Francois “White Buffalo” Botha, 41, of South Africa at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.  At stake is the WBF heavyweight championship belt- and best, if you want to watch the fight, to pull out the No-Doz.

Holyfield, the former four-time heavyweight champion, apparently, wants to who wants to prove he stills has the skills to be a world champion, even though he last held a belt nearly 10 years ago and has lost two fights in a row. 

Holyfield has a professional boxing record of 47 wins with four losses, two draws and 27 KOs. 

Botha (47-4-3, 28 KOs), has had a relatively distinguished career as a heavyweight boxer with top contenders, but has fought several world heavyweight champions including Mike Tyson, Shannon Briggs, Axel Schulz, Michael Moorer, Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko. 

Even so, Botha is named the current World Boxing Foundation World Heavyweight Champion. (Although he won the International Boxing Federation World Heavyweight title in the ring the fight was declared a no contest and he was never officially recognized as champion.) 

Probably feeling that long-term boxing is not good for the brain cells, Botha had some smarts and turned entrepreneur for a short time, corning the market on some magical champagne glasses. All you had to do was twist the stem and, voila!, the fluted glass supposedly lit up like Grand Central Station at rush hour. 

Promoters are literally begging the fight sales light up.  By Friday afternoon, only 2,000 tickets had been sold, leaving promoter Crown Boxing, which is paying Holyfield $150,000 plus a pay-per-view percentage, to hope for a large walk-up crowd. Even $25 lower-bowl seats are going unsold. 

Holyfield currently has the odds of minus-360, Botha plus-280

If you’re into comedy and want to save gas money, turn on the fight at 8 p.m. (PT) on pay per view (Cable 502, DirecTV, Dish Network) and shell out $29.95.

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Prive Nightclub in Las Vegas on Life Support, Death Imminent

The Prive and Living Room nightclubs at Planet Hollywood resort in Las Vegas are losing their lease with Planet Hollywood and many are saying the nightclubs will close this weekend. 

The adjacent and jointly operated clubs, which filed for bankruptcy protection in Miami in November, filed a motion on Wednesday to dismiss the bankruptcy case because of the lease issue.

{Las Vegas Backstage Access has written in the past on Prive nightclub and their many woes.}

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Company Kitchen & Pub Morphs into Las Vegas Lounge

Pure Management Group has announced its intention to convert Company Kitchen & Pub House at the Luxor in Las Vegas into Company Lounge, “a casual nightlife venue.” 

This is the second such change for the 11,000 square-foot venue, which opened in November 2007 as Company American Bistro. Originally helmed by Chef Adam Sobel (formerly of Restaurant Guy Savoy, currently executive chef of RM Seafood), the über-chic, ski lodge-inspired venue’s opening celebrity investor lineup included such Hollywood luminaries as Nick Lachey, Nicky Hilton and Wilmer Valderrama. Following Chef Sobel’s March 2008 departure—as well as that of Top Chef’s foam-of-famer Marcel Vigneron—Company briefly shut down to transform into the more approachable, American tapas iteration. 

A PMG representative reports that the Company Lounge schedule has cut back from the resto’s Wednesday through Sunday, 5 p.m.-late, to just “Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings.”

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Las Vegas Event Honors Four-Legged Beasts

Today, April 10, grab your favorite four-legged friend and head down to the largest animal event Nevada has to offer.  In its 11th year, Petapalooza takes over Star Nursery Field at Sam Boyd Stadium.  

The daylong pet-friendly concert funds more than 40 animal rescue groups and features acoustic performances by the Barenaked Ladies and Five for Fighting, among others. 

Last year, more than 20,000 attendees and 4,000 leashed dogs—along with a few parrots, potbellied pigs and snakes—took in the event. 

Admission is $7 or $5 with a can of dog food.  Event is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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New Red Rock Canyon Visitors Center Opens in Las Vegas Today

A year in the making, the Red Rock Canyon Visitors Center grand opening will be today, April 10.  

Located 17 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip on Charleston Boulevard/State Route 159, the new exhibits provide a glimpse of surrounding geology from the death of the supercontinent 250 million to 160 million years ago and of human history going back 10,000 years, including the Old Spanish Trail of the 1800s and Las Vegas today. 

A new amphitheater with seating for 290 gives lecturers a place to talk, actors a stage to perform and provides a place outside to hold weddings. 

Visitors will experience outdoor exhibits that bring replicas of some of the park’s most fragile features to the foreground: things such as American Indian rock art panels, desert tortoises in their natural habitat, and a life-size cougar that lurks atop one of the shade walls. 

It’s all designed so people can touch, feel, see and understand the national conservation area from the perspective of earth, water, fire and air. 

Park volunteers, Bureau of Land Management personnel and elected officials will hold a grand opening for the new visitors center and exhibit area at 11 a.m. before public access to the displays begins at 2 p.m. Among the attendees will be Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who championed the effort behind the $23 million visitors center expansion project and the bill that paid for it through the sale of public lands in Southern Nevada. 

Look-alike Teddy Roosevelt actor Joe Wiegand will be at the grand opening today and again Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The admission fee to the park includes access to the visitors center and its outdoor exhibit area. 

Visited by more than one million people each year, the 195,819 acre Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area adjacent to the visitors center stands in mark contrast to Las Vegas, a city primarily geared to entertainment and gaming.  Red Rock Canyon includes a 13-mile scenic drive, more than 30 miles of hiking trails, rock climbing, horseback riding, mountain biking, road biking, picnic areas- and now, a new visitors center.

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