Many in the media, not just myself have complained over the years about the lack of exits at the MGM Grand Arena.
Essentially there is only one way out and when you are trying to cram 16,000+ people through that one entrance after a fight that has emotions running high, the chances of bad things happening are high. This is not the first time this has happened and probably won’t be the last time.
I was coming up the escalator when the fights started to break out, luckily I was far enough away that I wasn’t injured but others including small children were as lucky.
Between 20 and 40 people were reported injured after the Mayweather Vs. Maidana fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Saturday, when fans suddenly stampeded for the exits following the highly unpopular ending to the bout, which saw Floyd Mayweather Jr. awarded an narrow majority decision victory over crowd-favorite Argentine Marcos Maidana.
One fan Dulce Castillo, told a reporter that her six-year-old son was trampled in the melee and had to be hospitalized.
“The people [were] over me and I am scared and I am screaming very hard,” Castillo said. “I said to my brother, ‘Help me, help me, please.’ My son is with people [on top of him]. I thought that we were dying, really.”
The Las Vegas Sun reported that 300 to 400 people were involved in the violence, with the injuries including two security guards while”five or six” fights broke out between spectators and Las Vegas Metro Police.
“People just started yelling and screaming, and next thing I know some guy jumps over my table and hits me on the head,” one witness, identifying himself a Carlos, age 64, told the paper. “People pushed the table back against the wall. There were a couple of ladies on the floor next to me. It was chaos.”
Here is a video from Boxing Scene showing people rushing into the media room to get away from the riot.
There were unconfirmed reports of gunfire or someone flashing a weapon, but no weapon was ever found. Hopefully before the next big fight MGM does something to stop this from happening again.
