Tiny fighters might make audience appear larger

I remember sitting with Dana White one day at UFC headquarters and him saying there always will be street corners and alleys and places out back where two guys settle disagreements with their fists. And that as long as the inevitable crowd gathers to watch, that boxing and mixed martial arts and their many derivatives will live long and prosper, the concussions and cauliflower ears notwithstanding.

He makes a good point.

But the prospect of two bantamweights meeting at Mandalay Bay on Feb. 19 to resolve a disagreement about who is the better fighter is not what prompted my attendance at Monday’s Fernando Montiel-vs.-Nonito Donaire news conference at the resort’s Mizuya Lounge. Nor was it the free and decadent pastry.

It was the promise that Bob Arum, the Las Vegas-based Hall of Fame boxing promoter, would be “holding court,” as the old scribes used to say in the black-and-white days before HBO ran the sport.

Listening to Arum hold court is what it must have been like watching Earl “The Goat” Manigault or Connie Hawkins or one of the other basketball playground legends do so at Rucker Park in Harlem. Only with fewer dunks.

Alas, Arum was in Los Angeles, preparing to hold court at another version of the same news conference Tuesday. He would not be attending.

No Arum. No Scarem. No possibility of an outrageous monologue. Yesterday, he might have been lying. Today, he won’t be telling the truth. Because today he’s in L.A.

Naturally, I was disappointed. But in boxing you get used to it. Especially if you’ve ever paid good money to watch one of the Klitschkos fight.

But I was greeted warmly by Lee Samuels, Arum’s longtime publicist, who shouted across the room to Bruce Trampler, Arum’s longtime matchmaker, who went into the Hall of Fame himself last summer.

“The Rifle’s here.”

That’s another thing about boxing, and boxing people. Even if you’ve been away, they make you feel at home or, if you don’t have one, at a Best Western with free Wi-Fi.

This is why I have always liked boxing people, even though a lot of them smoke fat cigars. And if you don’t have a nickname, they’ll give you one. They’ve always called me “Rifle” because Samuels is a Philly guy and that’s where Ron Jaworski, the original “Polish Rifle,” played quarterback.

I mentioned to Trampler that casual boxing fans don’t really care about the bantamweights, except maybe in May if one is assigned to ride in the Kentucky Derby. But Trampler said there have been a lot of great 118-pound fighters and started rattling off names.

I learned there once was a flyweight/bantamweight of some repute named “Corporal” Izzy Schwartz, which, I think, reinforces my point about casual fans not really caring much about little guys who can fight, except for maybe Manny Pacquiao.

We chatted about a boxing renaissance before the holidays that began with Juan Manuel Lopez stopping Rafael Marquez at the MGM Grand and featured a number of other compelling bouts, including Juan Manuel Marquez’s ninth-round knockout of Michael Katsidis. Perhaps boxing needs a few more guys named Juan Manuel, I said, because judging from the empty seats at some of these entertaining fights, interest in the sport seems to be waning.

Yes and no, Trampler said. The live gate, as in most sports, doesn’t matter much anymore. It’s about who’s watching on TV. And unless there’s a way of counting how many pals the guy next door invites over to watch the pay-per-view or premium telecast he has paid for, it’s hard to tell if interest in boxing is waning, growing or the same as it ever was.

It would be hard to argue that interest in boxing is growing. But perhaps these bantamweights can take a swing — or a couple of hundred of them — at increasing the audience.

Montiel hasn’t lost in five years, Donaire in nearly 10. Montiel is a Mexican, Donaire a Filipino. Not all Mexicans throw punches in bunches, but a lot of them do. Not all Filipinos have the heart of a lion, but a lot of them do.

Neither, I should point out, is a corporal in the Army, like Izzy Schwartz.

But this is a fight that a lot of boxing people will be watching, especially if the guy next door doesn’t cancel his HBO subscription.

Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352.