While boxing events are getting more expensive, with headliners, such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bernard Hopkins, Oscar de la Hoya and Winky Wright, fans are not able to see live fights. So rather than pay $400 to $2,000 a ticket—unless a seat in the nose bleed section for $75 is an option—fans have to watch Pay-Per-View cable bouts for around $50. Crown Boxing, however, is promoting championship fights that everyone can afford.

I refer to these as club fights, where a viewer only spends $25 to $50. Crown’s matchmaker is Frank Luca, who has over 40 years of experience in the fight game. Luca, along with Vice President and Marketing Director Greg Kasse, are bringing integrity back to boxing. In fact, for the first time in the history of the Orleans Hotel and Casino, there was a sellout crowd within 24 hours of the fight card.

According to Kasse, it has to do with innovative marketing, partly done through the Internet.

You may remember Luca as the youngest trainer to take Earnie Shavers to Madison Square Garden to fight Muhammad Ali; in 1978, coached Shavers to a first-round knock out of Ken Norton in Las Vegas. To sum it up, Luca has trained over 364 fighters in his career and has done 167 televised fights on ABC, ESPN, NBC, CBS and USA Network aired around the world.

It is, therefore, no surprise that Luca’s Crown Boxing is doing such a wonderful job in promoting boxing. His fight card at the Orleans on Fri., Jan 11, introduced some new fighters. The main event, a 10-round IBA heavyweight championship had Las Vegas’ Willie Chapman (21-29-4), who was considered the underdog, take on Carlos Barnett (11-1-0) of Phoenix, Ariz.

The wild punching style of Chapman got him knocked down twice in round one and once in round five. Nevertheless, Chapman showed heart and entertained the audience while making Barnett look bad as he received consecutive hits to his head and body. As it has been said often, “Fighting styles make fights.” Chapman at least showed he had heart and some good boxing style—even with wild punches.

At the end of the round 10, the judges scored fairly 94-93, 94-93 and 95-92, giving the IBA heavyweight title to Carlos Barnett.

One of the other highlights on the undercard introduced a superb fight between Cindy Serrano (15-1-1) of Brooklyn New York, taking on Layla McCarter (27-13-5) of Las Vegas in a six round lightweight bout. McCarter showed great boxing skills, continuously executing left jabs and rights to Serrano, winning by unanimous decision.

The next fight card is slated for March 7 in the Orleans ballroom.

Carlos Barnett receives IBA heavyweight title in Las Vegas at the Orleans Hotel and Casino on Fri., Jan. 11. 

 Photographs by Kyung Oh