Thursday, May 1
LAS VEGAS – Sunday’s undisputed super-bantamweight title fight, between the champion Naoya Inoue and Ramon Cardenas, continues to be marketed as a fight for the popular Cinco de Mayo weekend, and yet it remains possible that Inoue will be the better-supported fighter at the T-Mobile Arena on Sunday evening.
That Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is fighting the unremarkable William Scull on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has, for the first time since he succeeded Floyd Mayweather as the focal point of the Mexican-holiday weekend, potentially jeopardised that status. There is little question that if he returned to more familiar territory – he fought John Ryder in his home city of Guadalajara in 2023 and has otherwise consistently fought in the US – he would automatically reclaim it, even if Cardenas were to unexpectedly record the most entertaining of victories on Sunday. But between two considerably more appealing promotions on Friday in New York and on Sunday in Vegas, unless he records an explosive stoppage Alvarez is unlikely to attract the level of attention to which he has long been accustomed.
The Mexican-American Cardenas was matched with Inoue, of Japan, because his heritage provides the desired Mexican interest and, on the eve of Cinco de Mayo – and also because of how much closer Mexico is than Japan to Las Vegas – it would have appeared likely that he would have more of the crowd’s support on Sunday evening, particularly given some will be present to watch their compatriot Rafael Espinoza fight Edward Vazquez.
Monday, however, is also a Japanese holiday. Every year the Japanese celebrate Golden Week – the four holidays of Showa Day, Constitution Day, Greenery Day and Children’s Day. In 2025 the first of those, Showa Day, came on April 29. Greenery Day – a day dedicated to the environment – is May 4, when Inoue and Cardenas will fight, and Children’s Day is May 5. If Vegas represents an unlikely location for anyone of any culture to celebrate the environment, or indeed Children’s Day – when families pray for the health and future success of their sons by hanging up carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls – it was recently reported that 29 per cent, or 410,000 of a reported 1.4 million, of Japanese people living in the US are based in nearby California. BoxingScene also understands that promoters Top Rank’s targeted advertising was more successful in Los Angeles, San Francisco (both cities are in California) and New York than anywhere else.
Any accustomed to attending big fights in Vegas will recall the consistency with which they are on a Saturday evening, and if they are around for sufficiently long afterwards, how quiet the strip is, by comparison, on a Sunday. As a consequence of the many visitors leaving at the end of the weekend, it can also be difficult to get a reasonably priced domestic flight on a Sunday, but Top Rank’s Carl Moretti told BoxingScene: “MGM actually said ‘Sunday works better, because Monday’s a Japanese holiday and a Mexican holiday – obviously’. So it actually worked out good for the Japanese crowd, and the Mexican crowd.
“The best part about it is it’s not on pay-per-view. It’s on regular ESPN, and the lead-in is the Dodgers-Braves [game], with [celebrated baseball player Shohei] Ohtani, so they’re going to be doing cross-feeds and cross-promotion with Ohtani and Inoue. When you add those things up, it’s pretty cool.
“We have a weigh-in on Saturday, as opposed to Friday, and a press conference on Friday, as opposed to Thursday.
“The bigger paydays, the bigger fights, are always gonna take place in Japan, because he’s the number one or number two athlete over there.
“He has gotten bigger [since his last fight in the US in 2021], in reputation and stature and everything else, so I think it will feel a little bit more comfortable to him, his team, and all of us when he walks out to an arena as opposed to a ring set up like a bubble [like it was during the pandemic].
“I don’t think it’ll be thousands and thousands [of Japanese fans] like you used to see for Ricky Hatton, but I think you’ll see a decent turnout for him.”