A little over a week ago, I had the pleasure in to traveling to Monterrey, MX, to sit ringside for Tijuana’s Antonio DeMarco’s challenge of WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero at the Arena Monterrey. Unfortunately, DeMarco’s bid to become a full-fledged champion was not to be and he was stopped after the ninth round when his trainer, Romulo Quirarte, prevented him from answering the bell for the tenth.
Despite DeMarco coming up short, my stay in the “City of Mountains” was enjoyable. Following is my diary for my time in Monterrey:
Thursday, February 4th
9:30am-Left my house. Had to walk a couple of blocks to get a taxi. Seemed like a good idea when I thought of it but now with my carry-on bag and my computer satchel filled to the brim, not so much.
10:15am-Make it to the airport after a 45 minute taxi ride. Once I check in, I immediately made my way to the gate and bumped in to Abraham and “Chucky” Lopez, brothers of Juan Pablo “CheChe” Lopez. “CheChe” was scheduled to fight on the card Saturday night. Abraham mentioned that they had changed their return flight home and that I should have checked mine when I checked in. Advice I didn’t listen to.
10:45am-Was informed that my flight was delayed two hrs and now will be taking off at 1:50pm instead of the 11:50am originally scheduled.
11:15am-Went over to a restaurant in the terminal and had breakfast. While there, hooked up with Tijuana’s de facto boxing ambassador, Conrado “Conejo” Guerrero. “Conejo” is a boxing jack of all trades. His day job is working with Zanfer Promotions on their day-to-day activities but he also manages fighters and matchmakes fights. Anything you need to do with boxing in Mexico, “Conejo” is your guy and he is a real asset to have in your corner. Oh, he also works corners. Later, we were joined by Dr. Roman Cruz who was also traveling to Monterrey as DeMarco’s doctor. We proceeded to discuss Tijuana boxing while we waited for our plane.
2:20pm-Boarded the plane
7:00pm(local Monterrey time)-After about a two and a half hour plane ride we arrived in Monterrey. The airport is quite nice and modern. The best airport I have visited in Mexico.
8:00pm-After finding out we will not be staying in the same hotel as Demarco and Valero but at the Holiday Inn which is in walking distance from the Arena, “Conejo” and I arrive. The Holiday Inn is where everybody from the production is staying and since “Conejo” is working with Zanfer Promotions, that is where we stay. The hotel was nice and accommodating.
9:00pm-After settling at the hotel, “Conejo” and I go to dinner at the hotel restaurant. Minutes later, we are joined by Rafael Soto Gil who does PR for Zanfer and Roberto “Viejo” Valenzuela, a tough journeyman, who usually fights between 135lbs-140lbs but is scheduled to face local Michael Medina on Saturday as a junior middleweight. Valenzueza has traded leather with everybody, and when I say everybody, I mean everybody. Jose Luis Castillo, Carlos Molina, Luis Carlos Abregu, Norberto Bravo, Miguel Espino, Freddy Hernandez, Antonio DeMarco, Andre Berto, Ben Tackie and Ahmed Santos are just some of the fighters that Valenzuela has faced. As always when two or more boxing people get together, boxing and its politics are discussed.
10:00pm-Took a stroll outside the hotel and walked past the Arena which was only about ten minute walk away. Bought some beer and brought it back to the hotel.
10:30pm-Back at the Hotel.
Friday, February 5th
11:00am-Went downstairs and had breakfast. Bumped into former Sycuan Boxing matchmaker Sean Gibbons who now works as an independent consultant, mostly with Zanfer and Top Rank among others. Since Gibbons and “Conejo” were working together on the next night’s event, Gibbons joined us to discuss details with “Conejo”.
12:00pm-Took the ten-minute walk to the Arena with Sean Gibbons. Along the way we discussed San Diego boxing and the demise of Sycuan Boxing Promotions.
1:00pm-After hanging out watching the Showtime production crew set up, made my way to the weigh-in. Many of the fighters were there except for the two main event fighters, DeMarco and Valero. A lot of press was doing what press does before the weigh-in, vying for the best spot to take photos or listen to the weights so that they can report back.
1:50pm-DeMarco arrives. Immediately makes his way to the scale to check his weight. After, heads to the local doctor’s to get his pre-fight physical.
2:00pm-Valero arrives. Skips the scale and heads to the doctor’s station to get his physical.
2:45pm-Both fighters weigh-in at 135lbs. pounds and we have a WBC championship fight. After the melee where both fighters get taken pictures of, the rest of the fight card weighs in.
3:00pm-Back at the hotel to send in the weights to Fightnews.com.
4:30pm-Made my way to the Camino Real Hotel in the San Pedro section of Monterrey. This is considered the Beverly Hills area of the city and you can tell by the ostentatious hotels which remind of Las Vegas and its casino online. Got to the food court of the attached mall of the hotel where I met with DeMarco and his crew to have lunch.
5:00pm-We took a stroll thru the mall which had every kind of store imaginable. From Kenneth Cole to authentic Charro costumes. They even had a Chilli’s.
6:00pm-Made it back to the hotel of one DeMarco’s crew. Proceeded to drink the contents of the mini-bar and then went back to the mall for some more.
9:00pm-One of the guys in the room had a friend who was originally from Tijuana but had moved to Monterrey. He picked us up and took us to meet the night life of Monterrey.
Good Times.
3:30am-Back to my hotel.
Saturday, February 6th
11:00am-Leave Hotel towards downtown Monterrey to do some sightseeing.
11:35am-Had Breakfast at the Sanborn’s in Plaza Hidalgo. There, I was attended by the best waitress in my life. She didn’t do anything special but she just made everybody feel welcomed on the counter. I over heard her say that she had been working there for twenty-three years but because of her demeanor, you would have thought that it was her first day.
12:00pm-After breakfast, I decided to take a stroll around the MacroPlaza of Monterrey and head to the cathedral and then to the Museum of Contemporary Art. There, I saw the work of Ramiro Martinez Placencia, an artist whose work I was not familiar with but highly impressed by.
1:45pm-Back to the hotel for lunch with “Conejo” and rest before the fight card. Also needed to take some notes regarding the records of the under card fighters in case there wasn’t any internet at the site but
luckily there was and I was tempted to play a casino game first to win an online casino bonus.
3:30pm-Made it to the Arena early. Met with Showtime to go over how to use the equipment for the press row judging. Wandered around and found myself in DeMarco’s dressing room before. Wished him, Marvin Quintero and “CheChe” Lopez luck before their fights. The mood before hand the fight card was loose with various members of the team cracking jokes and trying to keep it light.
4:45pm-The bouts began as the fans began to trickle in. At first, I don’t think there were a hundred fight fans in the huge arena but by the time the Showtime telecast began, it was at near capacity, close to 9,000 Monterrey boxing aficionados. typically, the under card was a series of mis matches with the promoters trying to showcase their up and coming talent. The excitement did not begin until the first televised fight between Abregu and Gutierrez. As I was scoring the fight for Showtime, I had it much closer than the actual ringside judges which made me nervous for the main event. By the time Antonio DeMarco made is way to the ring, the night had become electric with the Banda playing “El Sinaloaense“, a song dedicated to DeMarco’s home state. As expected, Valero was welcomed by a series of jeers and boos. No sense going over the fight here where Valero after surviving two early cuts and a surged attack from DeMarco, was able to shut down the Tijuana fighter with a relentless attack as DeMarco retreated. DeMarco did not answer the bell for the tenth round giving Valero his twenty-seventh consecutive victory by knock out against no defeats.
10:00pm-As I made my way to the dressing rooms, I ran into DeMarco’s team and exchanged glances. Their eyes said it all, it just wasn’t their man’s night. We made our way back to DeMarco’s dressing room to wait for the fallen challenger. An emotional scene developed when DeMarco reached the dressing room after a series of interviews in and outside the ring. As he cried in the arms of his trainer and father figure, Romulo Quirarte, you could feel the pressure which cooked for over two months of training release. Unfortunately, there weren’t tears of joy but of heart ache. Soon after, Gary Shaw, DeMarco’s promoter, made his way to DeMarco and offered him words of encouragement and reminded him that everybody in that room was somebody that loved him and that he was young enough to easily bounce back from the defeat. I agreed.
11:30pm-Since there were no celebratory parties to attend, “Conejo” and I made our way back to the hotel for a late dinner where we discussed the night’s events over cheese enchiladas (my order) and some arrachera tacos (his order). In fact, once “Conejo” had the arrachera tacos on our first night in the hotel, he refused to try anything else the restaurant offered except for breakfast. He had the arrachera tacos for lunch and dinner and I am sure that he would have had them for breakfast if they would have offered.
Sunday, February 7th
7:30am-Leave the hotel bright an early for my trek by home. Monterrey local time is actually two hours ahead of Tijuana so I was really leaving at 5:30am.
8:15am-Find out my flight is cancelled. I checked the status of the flight the night before via internet but I guess in Mexico, that is no guarantee. I had a direct flight that would have put me in Tijuana at 11:50am. Now that had changed.
8:30am-Now I am informed that I would have to take a longer way home, first flying to Mexico City, having a lay over of two hours and then flying home, touching down at 5:00pm Tijuana time.
8:45am-Breakfast of quesadillas while I finished up my ringside report for FightNews.com. While sitting at the airport restaurant, saw highlights of the bout and Valero looks much faster on TV than live.
11:00am-Boarded flight to Mexico City.
12:30pm-Landed in Mexico City. Finished up my report and realized that since I was going to touch down in Tijuana at 5pm, I was going to miss my deadline of 1pm with FightNews.com. Since I don’t have an account with the Mexican cell phone provider, I had to ask a very nice fellow passenger if I could borrow his apple computer to email my report, he complied.
2:25pm-Boarded plane for Tijuana.
5:00pm-Land in Tijuana. Venture out of the airport for a taxi which gouged me but I would have paid my weight in gold just to be home.
6:00pm-Home sweet home, in time to catch the last quarter of the Super Bowl, Go Saints!!