Stephen Reid’s Night of Boxing at the former Las Vegas Hilton

The convention area of the Las Vegas Hilton – the hotel is now called the Westgate – harbored some of the greatest fights of the 20^th century. Mike Tyson captured his first title here and subsequently became the undisputed world heavyweight champion in this space. In 1990 (Chavez-Taylor I) and again in 1993 (Carbajal-Gonzalez I) this spartan arena was the setting for what became The Ring magazine Fight of the Year.

Boxing returned to the hotel’s convention area last night (Thursday, Feb. 13) with a show that in no way resembled the aforementioned. Stephen Reid, a 34-year-old Las Vegas attorney and transplanted Brit – he earned his law degree at Oxford – was the catalyst. It was his first venture as a boxing promoter. We were there.

Reid’s inaugural debut, in the words of ring announcer Sonny Franco, was a five-bout card topped by an 8-round welterweight contest between Ravshan Hudaynazarov and Cameron Kreal (aka Krael). The advance pub for the card on social media bespoke a deeper undercard, but filling in the “TBA blanks” proved problematic.

This reporter has a soft spot for grassroots promoters. Plus, a boxing promoter’s first venture is often a comedy of errors and there’s an inherent fascination in that.

There were a few glitches. The lines at the two box office windows moved at a snail’s pace because the freebies also picked up their admission passes there and the ladies working the booth were constantly on a cell phone checking with someone inside the arena to see if so-and-so was legit. The congestion created the illusion of a strong walk-up sale but the crowd could not have numbered more than 300.

Those that ponied up $25 to see the show got their money’s worth. “There won’t be ‘A sides’ and ‘B sides’ on my shows,” promoter Reid told me at the previous day’s weigh-in. That’s standard promoter-talk, a promise that’s invariably hollow, but on this particular night, it proved true. None of the 10 contestants was protected. Four of the five fights were both entertaining and competitive.

Two of the bouts, including the main event, produced a split decision. Another, a six-round middleweight contest, was ruled a draw. The stalemate speeded up the show as Lisa King, the attractive young lady hired to interview the winner of each bout in the ring, had no winner to interview and took a pass.

From a matchmaking standpoint, Stephen Reid’s “inaugural debut” earned a grade of “A.”

Back in October of 2017, a story on these pages identified Cameron Kreal as the sport’s best 23-year-old journeyman. At the time, his record stood at 12-12-3. The Las Vegas boxer is 26 now and his record heading into last night was 16-15-3, but the label still fits. He doesn’t pack a hard punch, but this kid can fight.

Kreal has been matched tough since the onset of his career. His former foes include Maurice Hooker, Jamal James, Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Keith Hunter, all of whom were undefeated at the time that he fought them. His opponent, who had his early fights in his native Uzbekistan, was likewise battle-tested. Hudaynazarov had lost three straight coming in, dipping his record to 17-3, but his opponents in those three fights were a combined 49-2.

Kreal knocked Hudaynazarov off his pins with a hard right in the third round, and although the Uzbekistani recovered nicely, that proved pivotal. In a fight that could have gone either way, the “due factor” kicked in for Cameron Kreal who finally finished on the right side of a razor-thin decision.

As this reporter sat watching the fights, he kept thinking of Royce Feour. The longtime Las Vegas Review-Journal scribe, who died at age 79 in December of 2018, covered every show in town, no matter how small, during his 25 years on the R-J boxing beat. A publicist for a small-fry Las Vegas promoter would reach out to Feour first as his patronage was the most highly prized.

Neither of the town’s two daily papers had a correspondent at last night’s show. The two big boxing journalists who make Las Vegas their home – Yahoo’s Kevin Iole and Tim Dahlberg of the Associated Press — were likewise no-shows although one would not have expected to see them there. But times have changed, of course, and the traditional print media doesn’t move the needle anymore, not to the same extent as the leading social media sites.

Stephen Reid boxed as an amateur in England. He sparred with Billy Joe Saunders, among others. “He was way better than me,” Reid concedes, “although Billy Joe was several years younger.” Before moving to Las Vegas in 2011 Reid made the acquaintance of Hall of Fame referee Richard Steele who has become a close confidant. Steele is listed as the president of Reid Promotions; Stephen holds the title of CEO.

Reid says he was inspired to become a boxing promoter when he realized that the local kids in the gyms weren’t getting many opportunities to display their wares.

This observation is spot-on. Las Vegas, the so-called Boxing Capitol of the World, is bursting with boxers and aspiring boxers who are hungry to fight but can’t get a booking. Only Floyd Mayweather’s company was promoting club shows here on a regular basis and kids who were not part of The Money Team stable were largely locked out. (In a touch of irony, however, Stephen Reid’s maiden show included boxers from Oregon, Ohio, Texas, and Mississippi.)

It’s not our custom to tell anyone how to run his business, but it so happens that we had lunch yesterday with an old friend who visits the Westgate Sports and Race Book every day and had no clue that a boxing event was taking place on the property that very night. There was no signage, either outside on the marquee or inside in a prominent place. The Westgate has nearly 3,000 hotel rooms and although last night’s show was pitched at locals with word-of-mouth the key to a good turnout, signage may have roped in a few strays. And in a low budget production, needless to say, every little dollar helps.

Reid, who has a small law practice specializing in personal injury, immigration, and criminal defense, told me that his nut was $65,000. A realist, he had no expectation of recouping his investment. “The goal is to lose a little less the next time, and then break even the third,” he said of his intention to promote shows on a monthly basis.

That may be optimistic. But grassroots promoters are the lifeblood of the sport and we wish him well.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel 

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE