'The Event' prizefight lives up to its billing

I grew up watching prizefights on HBO Pay-Per-View when they were events. Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather, and the "Golden Boy" Oscar De La Hoya were like rock stars well before the UFC arrived on the scene.

The first time I went to a professional fight was back in August 2006, when Evander Holyfield took on Jeremy Bates (who?) at American Airlines Center in Dallas. A crowd of around 8,000 quietly watched Holyfield win in a second round TKO and the night ended around 9:45. The big celebrity in the house was former Dallas Cowboys star Deion Sanders. When word surfaced of the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight at Cowboys Stadium aka "The Event," my excitement was a bit tempered due to my previous attempt to attend a "big-time" boxing match. In fact, we did not decide to go until the day of the fight when one of my buddies got free tickets from a client. Our last-second planning actually worked to our advantage because we dealt with NO traffic. Since we only wanted to see Pacman fight (slated to begin around 10:15), we stopped at TGI Friday's in Lincoln Square to watch the Mavs-Knicks game in lieu of watching the under-card. (FYI #1: If you spend over $40 at any Lincoln Square outlet, you get to park for free during events at Cowboys Stadium.)

An easy walk down Collins took us to my current favorite place in the world and, being fashionably late, we walked right in the building. Once inside, I felt the vibe was in a different universe from the Holyfield fight. From our seats on the front row of the second level, we could see the ring, but all we did was watch the 72' by 160' Diamond Vision screen. It proved to be a really virbrant atmosphere with celebs on hand, including former Dallas Cowboys Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, former Super Bowl-winning Dallas Cowboys coaches Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, boxing champions Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, Mario Lopez and, of course, "Prime-Time" Deion Sanders. The main event began with the singing of three national anthems, including the Star-Spangled Banner performed by three Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. At 10:45, the fight began. What followed was pure domination by Pacman. Clottey appeared content with just surviving and avoiding a knockout. He was out-punched by an astronomical amount: (via CompuBox) Pacquiao landed 246 of 1,231 punches while Clottey connected on just 108 of 399. The standing room-only crowd totaled 50,994, with 50,000 of those cheering on Manny Pacquiao. The stadium's roof slowly opened for the final round, though the climax had little suspense. Pacman won the fight and retained his WBO Welterweight Title in a unanimous decision.

It was a great night and I definitely had that "I was there" feeling as we walked through the maze of traffic that crawled through the stadium parking lot in an effort to get out onto Randol Mill. We faced no traffic as we ventured out of Lincoln Square and off into the night before setting our clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time. (FYI #2: If you sneak out the back of Lincoln Square and take Road To Six Flags to Cooper, you can jump right on I-30 and avoid all of the confusion with the Three Bridges project.) FOLLOW JAY ON TWITTER @THEFAMOUSJAY