L.A. War with the Corner Cam!

Made the journey out to L.A. to cover hot prospect Victor Ortiz for HBO in his bout against Marcos Maidana. Originally there were two televised bouts on the card, but a late cancellation of the co-feature left HBO showing only one bout and giving me a bit of time to do a few behind the scenes shots.

Arrived at Staples Center about an hour or so before credentials were scheduled to be given out, and met up with my assistant for the night Bryan Crowe. We headed across the street to ESPNZone to grab some lunch before creds went out. Bryan was pretty fascinated with all the TV's around us...





Jumped across the street for the credential pickup, but while the gave out the credentials, they wouldn't let us in yet, no idea why, but we stood around outside and hung out with Matt Brown from the OC Register and waited for the ok to enter. I was getting a bit antsy because I wanted to set up a remote on the ringpost for the bouts. Normally, I'll set remotes a day or two in advance of the fight, but with the death of Michael Jackson, the Staples Center was on lockdown to move all the contents from the rehearsals he was doing there for his upcoming London tour. Nobody was allowed in for any reason. After about 20 minutes they let us in and we immediately headed to ringside, and started work on the remote, no issues, and no one questioned it. Whew...time to relax a moment. A few test shots (with my giant sized assistant who likes to tell short jokes) later the remote was good to go.







Only five bouts on the card, so plenty of time to run around and do some backstage work, both Victor Ortiz and Marcos Maidana were very cool and allowed me access for some shots of them getting their hands taped and the early part of their warmups.











Then back to the ring for the entrances...











As for the fight...wow...minutes into the fight Ortiz dropped Maidana, but right after the count, Maidana dropped Ortiz hard with the very next punch of the fight! Ortiz rose on unsteady legs, but managed to survive a wild round 1.











The fight from then on became a slugfest, Ortiz dropped Maidana twice more in the second round, but Maidana rose each time, and slowly turned the tide with some strong right hands in a great two-way action battle.

















Ortiz was badly cut over the left eye and had some bad swelling under the right as a result of the harder punching Maidana's blows.











The sixth was more of the same until a body shot hurt Ortiz, several follow up shots in the corner forced Ortiz to the canvas, and the ringside doctor called a halt to the bout, luckily for me right in the neutral corner with my remote, because I couldn't get the shot from my position ringside...















With the upset complete, Maidana celebrated with his new title, while Ortiz will have to wait another day to shine...







Had some nice gallery looks on the HBO site from the fight, the complete gallery can be seen HERE, but here are a few screen grabs at how the images were used.















Had a blast in L.A., got to see a good friend of mine from high school for the first time in a long time, and had a kick ass late night breakfast of Filet Mignon and Eggs! Thanks Pete! Also thanks to Bryan Crowe, my assistant for a job well done, and photographers Craig Bennett and Alexis Cuarezma, a great bunch of shooters and a blast to hang with, especially with an exhausted waitress at the ESPNzone!!!



Great fight and I really want to give the corner cam another go, as I think it can get even better...