Mazda 6 Keith Thurman-Luis Collazo: Weekend Review

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Keith Thurman - Luis CollazoMy Keith Thurman Luis Collazo fight week was an overall success in my opinion, not to say everything went perfect, because it didn’t. I’m extremely pleased I made the extra effort to go down to Tampa Florida. Clearwater, Florida is the home of Champion Keith “One Time” Thurman, who was making his homecoming for the first time as a major star.

I landed at Tampa International Airport around 10:47 am ET. I had been flying all morning since I had a connecting flight in Miami, Florida before getting to Tampa. At this point, I’m on the phone with my contact receiving final instructions for delivery of my car for the duration of my stay in Tampa.

Things started off bad because of my hesitance to book my flight and make the travel plans for this event, primarily due to financial reasons. We all know those that cover this sport make very little money from it. Things only got tougher as American Airlines tried explaining to me that my luggage is in Miami, which they will not be able to get to until 4 pm ET time. I’m pissed, and the heat and humidity are only adding to my frustrations. Seriously, the heat is insane in Tampa in July. Then, I locked eyes with her as she was pulling up. She’s looking like a shark on land so aggressive, yet sleek; those gunmetal rims gave her a sense of sophistication with a twist of sportiness. Relax, sweetie, I’m talking about the ride. It was the brand new Mazda 6, and it stopped looking like a shark and started to look more like a buoy in open water as I was desperately trying not to drown. Basically, it was a lifesaver with all things considered. After a few moments and a few prerequisites to receive the car, I was off and following my GPS to my first location – media workouts for Keith Thurman and Luis Collazo, plus undercard fighters Tony Harrison, Willie Nelson Antonio Tarver Jr, to name a few. It was finally time to work. Immediately, I noticed the vehicle had sensors for passing traffic to left and right of me, a small image of a car chimes and lights up in the rearview mirrors when neighboring cars get too close. This Mazda 6 was like no other vehicle I’ve been in before, and I’ve even had a few Mazda’s in my day: the 99 626 as well as a 92-94 Mazda RX7. So, I can appreciate a good sports sedan. The thing is; it performs like it has the soul of an RX7. I made it to the event right on time; it was a huge success because it was the first time I was going to be using the new Periscope equipment I purchased to use for this event, specifically. Periscope is an iPhone and Android app that allows you to live stream video from your cell phone. Obviously, you know me, and I went for quality and bought new add-on lenses and special cases, even a selfie stick. I was determined to bring my viewers a closer look at boxing through my eyes, POV style.

  #freeboxing4all me and Jay from Orlando #ThurmanCollazo #ThaBoxingVoice #Boxing #FREEBOXING4ALL #PBConESPN   A photo posted by Thaboxingvoice (@thaboxingvoice) on

It was time to leave, and I decide to do a walk around and show off some of the features the car had, which are a lot, I might add. This car basically had every feature. One of my favorites was the backup cameras. The camera on the Kia Sorento is still hands down my favorite. The Mazda 6, which had a connect infotainment system with a larger seven-inch full-color touchscreen display, was only lacking in comparison because with all that space they could’ve given the camera a left and right side of car view like with the Kia Sorento.

The more I drove the car, the more I fell in love. Thursday was the final Press Conference at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa. I made use of the Mazda built in Navigation system, the spinning wheel technology [Standard Multi-Function Commander Control] was very easy to use. With all of the miles I was putting in from location to location it was a huge benefit and time saver to not have to stop for gas. I got plenty out of the Mazda 6’s gas mileage. That allowed me to be first at each event, and I did not have difficulty finding parking nor getting checked in.

 

We here #ThurmanCollazo #Boxing #ThaBoxingVoice

 

A video posted by Thaboxingvoice (@thaboxingvoice) on

There was plenty of coverage to go around, and the fighters were beginning to get anxious, which was leading to great interviews. There were other PBC stars in the building, and I was able to capture everything on Periscope, which gave fans a real-time experience. It was a bit stressful trying to get everything done on my own with my new equipment to account for, but I worked hard to keep order and maintain quality footage. The need to unwind was never as important, but it was easy to relax cruising through beautiful Florida on what turned out to be a week of perfect weather. The comfort of the drive wasn’t just based on the easy maneuvering of the Mazda 6 because with Bluetooth accessibility as easy as I’ve ever experienced, I did not have the stress of entering a specific location into a complicated navigational system. Instead, the advanced technology allowed me to simply follow instructions while simultaneously playing with the car stereo. The safety factor was huge as well because I never had to take my eyes off of the road and was able to switch through various applications hands-free. The night of the fight was successful and in the end I was glad that I made the last minute arrangements. I can honestly say that I was panicking when all of these things started going wrong at the start of the trip, but I felt like I had real assistance with me in the Mazda 6 which allowed me to be less stressed in normally high pressured situations.