Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Notes: Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s great, but bout wasn’t; Chrissi Scinta’s stage return in question; Marie Osmond hits the (tomato) sauce

Mayweather Defeats Guerrero by Unanimous Decision

Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun

Robert Guerrero hits Floyd Mayweather with a right during their fight Saturday, May 4, 2013 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mayweather won a unanimous decision to retain his welterweight titles.

Mayweather Defeats Guerrero

WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., left, connects a punch on Robert Guerrero during their title fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday, May 4, 2013. Launch slideshow »

Time for a rake-and-shake of what has been happening on the VegasVille scene:

• A few ellipses-organized thoughts from Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Robert Guerrero bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena:

Mixed martial arts bouts are not as entertaining as great title fights, but where the UFC succeeds and boxing does not is by consistently pitting the top sport’s combatants against each other to forge great rivalries. Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao could have, and should have, fought four or five times by now. Instead, Pacquiao put himself in front of Juan Manuel Marquez enough times — four — that on Dec. 8, Marquez finally landed a shot that knocked him out. Pacquiao also lost what is a universally derided decision against Timothy Bradley last year and because of those consecutive defeats is not lined up to fight Mayweather. Boxing writers are wondering if there is enough interest in Mayweather-Pacquiao to re-heat energy behind this matchup. Not today. This is one of the sport’s all-time blown opportunities.

… Marquez was covering the bout for ESPN Deportes, and who is he set to fight next? Bradley, owner of that tarnished victory over Pacquiao and a World Boxing Organization title belt that looks good in the ring and also at such haunts as Hakkasan Las Vegas. … Meantime, Mayweather is set to fight a series of bouts on Showtime that are likely to play out in the same way as his numbingly predictably victory over Guerrero wound up Saturday. Mayweather is a crafty technician, but watching a superior fighter not get hit for 12 rounds is frustrating for a capacity crowd thirsting for action. Mayweather is a great fighter whose fights are too often not great.

… It seems no fight card in Las Vegas is complete without some strange scoring decisions. On Saturday, Las Vegas’s J’Leon Love won a split decision over Philadelphia’s Gabriel Rosado, though Rosado floored Love in the sixth round and had him on unsteady spindles in the ninth. The scores were 97-92 and 95-94 for Love; 95-94 for Rosado. Given that Rosado won the sixth round 10-8 because of the knockdown, that 97-92 card favoring Love looks way out of whack. … After almost every Las Vegas fight, someone outside the MGM Grand media room offers to buy my press credential. I don’t know what the market value is to hang out with a few hundred loud-mouthed entourage members, and far fewer actual journalists, but I expect it is rather high.

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The Scintas, pictured here in March 2013, are new headliners at the downtown D Hotel.

• The Scintas are back at The D Hotel, but Chrissi Scinta is not. The sister of the act has suffered from vocal problems for about 18 months and has had surgery to repair damage to her vocal chords. She hoped to return in time for the show’s Las Vegas return April 3, but her voice faltered during rehearsals, and the stark realization is setting in that Chrissi might never return to the stage. As Frankie Scinta said during an appearance on Friday’s “Kats With the Dish,” linked in this column, the family is prepared for any outcome — a week, a year, whenever or never — for Chrissi’s comeback. Stepping in is Janien Valentine, who is like family to the Scintas, in that she also is from Buffalo. The Scintas are a rarity in Vegas, not a four-wall show but backed by the hotel and Andiamo Italian Steakhouse owner Joe Vicari. They play at 9 p.m.; click here for ticket and schedule info.

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Cast members of "Jersey Boys" get sloppy at Buca di Beppo. From left, Rob Marnell, Travis Cloer, Deven May and Jeff Leibow.

Marie Osmond has culled clips from a variety of Vegas performers to drop into her Hallmark talk show, “Marie,” over the next few weeks. Appearing in the recorded cooking, and eating, segments from Las Vegas Buca di Beppo outlets are Tropicana Laugh Factory headliner Murray Sawchuck and his sidekick, Doug “Lefty” Leferovich and Sawchuck’s wife and assistant, Chloe; Stratosphere headliner (and inspiration of ample “Showbiz Roast” material directed at yours truly) Frankie Moreno; cast members of “Jersey Boys” at Paris Las Vegas; Paris hypnotist Anthony Cools; Mirage ventriloquist Terry Fator, his wife, Taylor, and puppets Winston the Impersonating Turtle and Monty Carlo (who resembles the Impersonating Johnny Kats); “Dancing With the Stars” pro dancer and choreographer Lacey Schwimmer; and the Ubiquitous Robin Leach. “Marie” airs weekdays at noon on Hallmark.

• The Strip’s only gay nightclub, which also is the Strip’s only nonsmoking nightclub, is set to open a few hours from this writing. It’s called The Affair, and it’s at Boulevard Theater across from Monte Carlo. As we say, hearken to Club Utopia and Empire Ballroom. Same building. The space is 25,000 square feet, 30 VIP booths, four levels and five bars. Sounds like a smokin’ place. Figuratively speaking.

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Rehan Choudhry, shown here during his days as entertainment director at the Cosmopolitan, plans to launch Life Is Beautiful next fall.

• Not only is Electric Daisy Carnival founder Pasquale Rotella nervous about the tax debate at the State Legislature in Carson City, but organizers for the upcoming Life Is Beautiful festival in downtown Las Vegas are concerned that a 5- or 10-percent admissions tax would devour that event’s profit margin. One of the more ambitious and far-reaching projects in recent Vegas entertainment history, Life Is Beautiful is planning to showcase a bevy of music acts, artists and chefs in an urban-tinged event covering 10 blocks on and around Fremont East.

Similar to EDC, Life Is Beautiful is an exemption to the state’s Live Entertainment Tax, which levels a 5- or 10-percent surcharge on many live entertainment events and shows in Nevada. Outdoor festivals are not taxed, but there is discussion among state lawmakers of enacting a flat “admissions tax” covering all ticketed events. That would include Life Is Beautiful, which would find such a tax rather non-beautiful.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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