...and so Friday arrived, along with our first guaranteed glimpse of Hatton and Mayweather...

One thing with Las Vegas, you don’t sleep much...

Its common knowledge that the air conditioning in the casinos is fuelled with oxygen to keep the punters awake. I have a theory that this extends to the bedrooms too, you can drink an ocean of ale, get to bed at 5am and by 8am one is as fresh as a daisy!!!

I think the main of the 'invasion' must have occurred Thu night / Fri morn. The MGM was busy last night but nothing like what we saw upon entering the casino from the living quarters on Fri morn...

Fans everywhere, hanging out of the three bars in the hotel, playing the casino, checking-in, the UK really had arrived in Las Vegas - and this was only 8am. We thought we would take in the buffet style breakfast to start the day, before collecting our fight tickets etc and moving on to the weigh-in. Prior no breakfast though we thought we would check out the arena entrance (4.5 minute walk from our room) to see what was going on. Bear in mind that the weigh-in was due to commence at 2pm and the doors were to open at 1pm. This was 8/9am and there was a queue several hundred people back already!!! Have they 'camped out'? Unbelievable scenes. As much as I am happy to queue, I wasn’t prepared to lose so much of my day.

We headed towards the MGM buffet, expecting a good feast for the last the day, it was like deja vu, an enormous queue again!!! I remembered the buffet in Excalibur, where I stayed in June was very good value for money so, as it was on the way to ticket collection, we headed there.

Can’t remember the cost but it was something like $11, about a fiver. The selection is beyond belief but I did only manage one serving. Steak and gateaux for breakfast, who would have thought it?

Moving on for fight tickets we made our way to Luxor. These tickets clearly had worth, I felt like Anneka Rice tracking them down. Called at Luxor reception as informed, forwarded on to a secondary reception in the bowels of the hotel, we were then handed a key card to operate the lift at the end of the corridor. Finally we got to the room where the tickets were, it was just a hotel bedroom, you could not put a price on the street value of what was in that room (tickets were going for $2,000 plus from touts!). We got our tickets and we got our VIP passes for a pre-fight welcome party in Mandalay Bay that night.

My heart was in my mouth as we got back to the arena (they were only allowing 6,000 in to the weigh-in and 33,000 had travelled to 'Vegas!). In the end it was easy, the doors were open and the allocated seats were about half full. What an atmosphere in there, it soon filled up and 6,000 Ricky Hatton fans were quickly in full voice. I still struggle to get my head around a number like that turning up for a weigh-in.

The names were soon on stage: Lennox Lewis, Joe Calzaghe, Enzo Maccranelli, Bernard Hopkins, Sugar Shane Moseley, Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar de la Hoya...just to name a few...but there were two other individuals that we were really waiting on.

Before the arrival of The Hitman and The Pretty Boy we had our first flashpoint. Calzaghe and Hopkins, nose-to-nose, pushing...that is one fight that I really hope gets the green light...

Hatton arrived, Mayweather arrived, the welcome for both could not have been any more different, yet the noise levels were the same each time. How must Mayweather have felt, he lives five minutes drive away from the arena, it would be like anyone of us popping down our local pub and having 6,000 Yanks screaming at you!

They weighed-in and then came the face-off, nose-to-nose, Floyd pushed first but then seemed to back-off, he appeared worried, it came as a shock to me and I’ll admit I though Hatton had the fight won there and then. He took to the microphone and promised us a win, he said Floyd would have to stop him breathing to stop him tearing his title from him...if only...

The weigh-in was over and it wasn’t long before everyone had left the arena, tingling with nerves and adrenaline in anticipation of what  would be upon us in that very same arena in just 24hours time.

I must have sounded like a stuck record, I couldn’t take in the entertainment that we had just had...for FREE. They could have charged $20 a head for that and donated it to charity or something. TUW and several others must have been sick of hearing me utter "I can’t believe we got that for free, I can’t believe the entertainment we have just been given".

It was upon leaving the weigh-in that we met up with another brace of Clarets, our very own Socrates and his mate, Lee? Lee turning out to be one of the funniest men I've ever met.

We chewed the fat over what had just happened at the weigh-in and what our predictions were etc. I was certain of a win and dragged all to the sports bookies in MGM Grand to lay some cash on The Hitman, the odds were awful but I still took them. I guess so much had been placed on Ricky from the travelling thousands that we was now clear favourite with the bookies in EVERY round. The odds were far better back in the UK.

We were due at our pre-fight party in a couple of hours, the location, an Italian in Mandalay Bay with free bar and free food, I disclosed at this moment that Italian was my favourite 'non-English food' and decided to give lunch, snacks etc a miss.

We went for a stroll up the strip, taking in some sights, grabbing a few photos and having a few drinks. An ale (of some form) called Blue Moon was sampled by Socrates. Now this was a beer.....with a slice of orange in it...one sip was enough for me, id sooner boil my head in my own p155 than drink that...Budweiser please for me, Sir...

Sat in a bar in Planet Hollywood was when I started to realise just how funny Socrates' mate actually was, he had already married himself off to two bar-maids, whilst sat there with his battered trainer on the plush sofas! Id love to expand on this fella's banter but if you’re reading this Soc, I’ll leave that to you...

Back it was, quick shower and change and off to the meet at Mandalay Bay, VIP cards around our necks. What a stunning hotel that is and what a lovely venue we had for the welcoming party. I took my fair share of the bar, Budweiser and even Gin & Tonic going down, a plenty. The meet was supposed to cease at 8pm after a couple of hours but fair play to them, they looked after us and the free bar ran until 9pm+. There was one problem though, the food. Now I’ve been told that it was top-notch stuff and, again, to be fair, the waiters would not stop offering you what they had on their trays. I caught one look of the first tray, oh no, I was expecting Hawaiian pizza and the like. Nope. This was gourmet stuff. For three hours I spent every breath in me saying "err, no thank you...no thank you", over and over again. The drink was starting to kick in now and even small things like the black man offering shoe shines for $5 in the toilets seemed funny, one of them looked like Arthur Gnohere!!! I hadn’t intended to drink much on the eve of the fight, but it happened. One great thing to come out of the party was meeting Andre Berto, the US fighter tipped to be the next big thing. He was the guest there and was happy to talk about the big fight, offer his opinions, pose for photos and sign autographs - lovely fella. We spent a lot of the time in there talking to a US couple who had travelled in to 'Vegas for the bout. They wanted a Hatton win too, something which most Yanks out there had in common. Upon leaving the Italian, things start to get a bit blurry...

I know we ended up at Paris hotel a couple of miles away, I presume via taxi, and we made the trip up the Eiffel Tower there, passing one stunning lass working at the bottom of the tower! It was freezing up there and I think TUW lasted about two minutes before vanishing back down in the lift. The views wee stunning and it certainly sobered me up a little. The Bellagio fountains really are something else, they are THE must see in Las Vegas IMO and for anyone who may take a trip out there, you MUST go up the tower and watch the dancing fountains from there...

Back down to Earth with a bump, back out on to the strip and time to hunt a taxi to take us to the Playboy club at Palms...

The taxis, however, were on the other side of the strip and there wasn’t a crossing for miles. I went for it, straight across the twelve lane strip! Possibly the most scared I’ve ever been, dodging one car, almost falling in to the path of a bus etc etc etc...at one point I was actually running up the boulevard in the opposite direction to the traffic...I just couldn’t get across! There’s me thinking I am gonna end up in either a cell or a hospital bed for the bight fight!!! I just couldn’t see another way of getting across, of course, the others, well, hey just waited for the red lights to stop the traffic didn’t they!

We managed to get a taxi outside Bellagio and 'I think' this is when the most significant thing to ever happen to me occurred. My mobile rang!!! I didn’t recognise the number!

"Hellllo"

"Hello, is Shaun there"

"Speaking"

"Alright, its ********, chorleyclaret"

BRILLIANT! 

It’s just a shame I can’t remember it, I know we spoke to ten minutes or so as I checked but I aint the foggiest what was said. Gutted! A wasted memory, all I’ll remember is that he accompanied me on the journey to Playboy...perhaps the most amazing club in the world.....

We had pre-paid for front of line tickets there and realised on arrival that was a great move, dozens or folk in a queue outside, freezing their privates off...our names were on the guest list and a disclosure of these to the doorman saw us quickly ushered in to the building...I felt like David Beckham!!!

Now it’s not a 'normal' nightclub. Upon entry you are taken into a lift, which shoots directly up to the 56th floor where the 'boogie' is. Stunning venue, complete with an outdoor platform, leather sofa's etc, somewhere you can have a drink and view the strip from a great height.

Of course there are gaming tables in there and a dance floor etc but it’s outside where the five of us spent most of our time there.

It wasn’t long before two Canadian 'chicks' were upon us...possibly the most forward female of the species I’ve ever come across! I had my suspicions that they were working there, what with their attitude, but they swore they were not and they were boozing.

Socrates may be able to expand on the next bit of banter better than me as the memory is really struggling but we got 'caught' by some hog of a female fossil on the sofa's. It seemed like she was dying to pull a young Englishman and she wouldn’t stop talking about how much money she had etc. She then made noises about her daughter, who was up dancing some 10ft in front of us, she was hinting to go for a chat I think but, as stunning as she was, I found the whole episode far too seedy and tried to sly off...

For all you into 'Bo' music I was informed that Kanye West was in the same club and that he came out of the same lift some of my Manchester friends got in! I wouldn’t know him if I fell over him but it just highlights what kind of venue this was. TUW hit the nail on the head: "Where better for a stag do".

It was time to go, most of the lads headed out and I spent half an hour 'trying' to get out. The place was like The Labyrinth, tunnels, lifts, shafts...I couldn’t get out...kept ending up in the 'ruddy toilets! Half expecting David Bowie to pop his head around the corner, him or some little green monster between the bricks Anyway 

I gave up and our little Irish mate Deck had to come all the way back up to get me...I don’t know what time we got back to MGM Grand but Ill leave you with a comment left on Ricky Hattons forum for me, just this week...

"Yea mate, we left playboy, we told you we were going over to New York, then the next we saw of you was at around 5.30am in MGM waving your wallet about saying I’ll be in the Zuri with you's when I get some cash!!!

You never came in though mate, you were hammered lol!!!"