(The view from my hotel room, where I might be the only guest.)
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — This town, it turns out, is a little dreary during a recession on a winter night when it’s also raining. Charmingly kitschy at its best, the scenery turns from comedic to depressing under less optimal conditions. There’s the carnie manning the hit-a-balloon-with-a-dart stand, who is more desperate than usual with Boardwalk traffic so sparse; the old woman smoking at the slot machine who may or may not be wearing a wig of long, curly, black hair; the young store clerk who’s playing Monopoly on his computer. (Do all AC residents play Monopoly a lot, given the game’s origins, I wonder?)
A fellow could get lonely from this, if he didn’t have his boxing blogging to keep him company. This week, the answer to the question “What would Tim Starks do if he didn’t have anything to do but blog all week?” shall be answered. Although maybe I’ll get a tattoo/hit 70s and 80s dance night/frequent an (ahem) “gentleman’s” club. And hey, I’ll be meeting a lot of boxing people and maybe getting face to face with boxing fans I’ve only talked to over the Interwebs — but even that, really, all relates back the the boxing blogging.
So here’s the plan for the week:
- Live coverage of Paul Williams-Sergio Martinez (middleweight) from AC on Saturday, capped by a live blog, and live coverage of Bernard Hopkins-Enrique Ornelas (light heavyweight) from Philadelphia Wednesday. That’s the bread and butter of my little working vacation.
- Guest blogging from Alex McClintock on Roy Jones Jr.-Danny Green (cruiserweight). You know him as ALEXMAC, a friend of the site. He’s already written an excellent preview-y feature piece that I’ll post Tuesday. If you didn’t have any idea why Jones-Green was so huge down under, you’ll know better tomorrow. He’ll also provide a post-fight write-up Wednesday after attending the event live, which will have a discreet headline so as not to spoil the fight for U.S. viewers who will be watching Jones-Green on tape delay on Versus and don’t like to know the results beforehand. But it’ll be there for you, after you watch or before, if you can’t help but peak.
- Attending media events for Williams-Martinez and Hopkins-Ornelas. Weigh-ins, press conferences — as much as I can soak up with events spread out from AC to Philly to New York City. I’ll try to give you a different look than the stuff you’ll get from the MSM.
- Previews of Williams-Martinez and its undercard. Separate posts, though. The Williams-Martinez undercard is surprisingly meaty.
- A preview of Amir Khan-Dmitriy Salita. This is a meaningful junior welterweight fight, and it deserves its own prediction entry.
- A look at the rest of the week’s boxing schedule, and the Quick Jabs round-up column. Like usual.
- A couple features, some related to the week’s events and some not, plus whatever noteworthy midweek news developments require bloggerificating. Hell, we might even squeeze in ANOTHER guest post this week, if things work out right.
