Oscar De La Hoya toy drive

A long week of Golden Boy Promotion events continued. Today people were allowed to come to De La Hoya's building and bring a toy worth 20 or more and receive two tickets to the fights on Saturday. Also it was advertised that De La Hoya would be collecting the toys. I got there extremely late and it didn't look like I was going to have a chance at a signature. There were several people in line, that seemed to be dealers that had been through the line many times already and they were getting questioned by GBP workers. I got brought into the group and quickly pulled out my toy, and told them I just arrived. Thankfully I had an unwrapped brand new toy laying around the house and it had some nice value. The employees were satisfied with me at that point and let me go inside. When I got up to the front, the people in front of me got the last two tickets to the fight. I was kind of bummed, but I was there for the autograph. They explained to me that they had no more tickets, but I could still get a picture with Oscar. I said, "what about an autograph." They said absolutely, but just one. I brought a pair of gloves with me. I got up to Oscar and he was thrilled with the toy I handed him and when I asked him to write, "Golden Boy" he said, "With this donation I would write whatever you want on it." I was fumbling over my stuff and the toy, and didn't process that line in my head quick enough to get a second or third inscription. He had his handler right next to him and wouldn't let him do the second glove. On the way out someone offered me 20 bucks for the unsigned glove, so I quickly jumped on that and broke even on the gloves I had just bought. De La Hoya was great as always and they collected a ton of toys for the community so that is phenomenal

Keyshawn Johnson signing at US Bank Grand Opening

At first I thought that this event was going to go unnoticed, which is almost impossible for an organized signing in Los Angeles. There are so many websites and blogs that promote sit down signings, that when one happens it is a zoo. People are literally camping out the night before for people that wouldn't even garner an hour line in other states. Anyway, there hadn't been much talk about the Keyshawn signing, but as it approached it got mentioned on the radio and a few of the websites and I worried it would be the same old story. I showed up about an hour and half prior to the signing and I was probably 20th in line. By the time Keyshawn got there it was probably at 75, which is really light for a signing in LA. It makes sense, being that it was the middle of the week at 12:30. They told us one per, but we could get back in line. When I got up to the front of the line, I got my 11x14 signed, and I was going to ask Keyshawn to inscribe something, and before I could get the words out of my mouth, he cut me off and said, "I don't write anything other than my name." It was pretty comical. I told him, that he didn't even know what I was going to say. I jumped back in line a few more times, and with there being such a small amount of people there I was able to get five items signed in all. I went through three times, the first time I got 11x14. The second time I got a USC mini helmet, and the third time I pulled out some football cards and Keyshawn did three at once. I wouldn't say he was overly friendly, I might've gotten the best dialogue out of him, and that was because he refused to do an inscription. I saw many people go through and he didn't even really look at them, he was just chatting to the handler next to him. The Grand Opening also included free Subway sandwiches for everyone, and they were giving away free 32" flat screen Televisions every 12 minutes in honor of 12-12-12. The workers at US Bank were extremely kind, they made this a great signing, I hope more businesses can replicate this in the future.

Amir Khan Open Training

Golden Boy Promotions, but out a whole list of events this week leading up to the fights this Saturday. The main fighter on the card was Amir Khan. A number of the fighters that will be participating in the fights on Saturday were having their media work outs today, and they were open to the public. Any time Golden Boy Promotions has an event like this, De La Hoya will most likely be there, so I went down to give it a try. When I got there De La Hoya was already there. He would do an interview and then take a bunch of pictures and sign a bunch of autographs. There were a few collectors there, but for the most part it looked like fans and friends were there to watch the training, and then when they realized De La Hoya was there they wanted a picture. I got Oscar to sign my 11x14, and then personalize an 8x10 to my girlfriend for Christmas. He really liked that, he said, "Thats a GREAT gift!" Make sure none of you let the cat out of the bag to my girlfriend, deal? Anyway, Oscar was very personable with everyone, and he really does a great job of taking on his brand and promoting it. It certainly seems like he knows that he is the face of the company and anytime there is an event like this he seems to be overly kind and generous.

Khan was super late, while I was waiting I spotted Abner Mares and I got a picture with him

Khan finally showed up, he was about an hour late, and once he got there, all the GBP pushed him to where he needed to go with the media, training, etc. I was fortunate enough to get him while he was walking in. If I didn't get him when he first pulled up, I probably would have had to wait another hour plus, and even still it might've been tough. He was only doing one per, and even though I brought two photos, I decided not to stick around and attempt getting the second.