The power of Las Vegas is almost overwhelming on any given Tuesday.

Adrenaline. Alcohol. Currency. Electricity.

Pick your poison. It's a city that thrives on all sorts of juice.

But at no other time do those elements pump as strongly through Las Vegas' gluttonous veins as they do on heavyweight fight weekend, when everything flows and anything goes.

Energy pulses in Las Vegas so much so that, on an average night, the hum of its lights literally can be heard in the desert 30 miles outside the city limits. Imagine, then, the added intensity generated with an injection of the stuff that really gets this city off.

Sweat and blood will flow from a pair of gloved gladiators and the crowd will scream for more when Lennox Lewis and David Tua try to bludgeon each other Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.

Their prize is the undisputed heavyweight world championship. But once the final bell clangs and the winner is declared, the throng will spill onto the streets of Vegas looking to ride the excitement until their bodies, their minds, their souls can stand it no more.

"Fight weekend is the highlight of Las Vegas," said former Mayor Jan Jones, now an executive with Harrah's Entertainment, one of the largest casino corporations on the planet.

"It's good theater. It embodies what Las Vegas is all about: the bustle, the entertainment, the carnival, the fantasy."

Weekends like these are what make Vegas the boxing capital of the world. A heavyweight title fight doesn't consume the city as much as it charges up its already-potent lifeblood.

No other setting could be fueled more efficiently.

Madison Square Garden? Big fights get lost in the New York shuffle.

Los Angeles? Too laid back.

Atlantic City? Vegas Posers.

"When people come to Las Vegas for a fight, they do it up," said Rob Brummitt, night manager of the Las Vegas Cigar Co., located a few hundred feet from the MGM Grand. "They're smoking, they're drinking, they're gambling all night.

"That's our crowd right there."

Fight night in Vegas takes a backseat only to the Oscars and the Grammys when it comes to places to be seen. The Hollywood elite take in a world-class sporting event -- usually on the casino's dime -- and enjoy a night of gambling, dining, drinking and reveling. Expected to be seated ringside Saturday are Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, Antonio Banderas, Denzel Washington, Will Smith and John Cusack to name a few. Heavy-hitting singers, athletes and politicians will soak in the scene.

Thousands of average folks also will converge from around the world. A strong British contingent will back Lewis, while supporters from New Zealand and Western Samoa will be there for Tua. This crowd should rock.

When fight fans come to Vegas, they like to throw around money to feel they're part of the event.

"It's all one big party," said Bill Poska, a customer service representative for Rent-a-Vette, an agency that specializes in high-end vehicles such as Corvettes, Vipers, Porsches, Ferraris and Humvees. Without blinking, people have been known to fork over $1,250 a night for a Lamborghini.

"They'll spend their money to feel good and look good," Poska added.

The night is pure excitement.

The energy, however, isn't always positive.

"We get the feeling here (as residents) that we're getting invaded," said Alex Ramos, operations manager for Las Vegas Limousine. "It isn't always favorable, especially the atmosphere of Mike Tyson fights."

Tyson crowds have a tendency to scare Las Vegans. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department goes into overdrive for Tyson fights and puts extra officers on duty to work "the vice angle, the organized crime angle, the gang angle, along with the traditional pickpockets, drunks and minor fights. And there also is the concern with the East Coast-West Coast rapper situation," Capt. Ray Flynn said a year ago before Tyson's bout with Orlin Norris.

Shortly after attending the Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight in 1996 at the MGM Grand, rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting a few blocks away. A hotel surveillance tape showed a post-fight altercation involving Shakur's entourage might have led to the shooting.

And then there was the infamous night in 1997, when Tyson bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield's ear. The incredulous crowd ran amuck in the MGM Grand casino area. Forty people filled out injury reports, and dealers who were interviewed stated they not only feared for their lives, but they also heard the distinct sound of gunfire.

Tyson, like Tua, is promoted by America Presents and probably will be a popcorn kernel's throw from Costner and Banderas Saturday night.

"Tyson kind of took the fun out of it for a while," Poska said. "We used to crank so much that I had to find cars for my clients by booking them with my competitors. But his antics kind of killed that a bit."

There's still far more glamour than gangsters.

Saturday night likely won't approach the epic Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney fight or Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Marvelous Marvin Hagler war in terms of heart-in-your-throat, palm-sweating wallop. But there isn't a more exciting place to be this weekend.

Sure, there's college football (Georgia-Auburn, Nebraska-Kansas State) and the NFL (Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos, New York Jets-Indianapolis Colts). But when those events are over, they're over. After that the choices are to sit in traffic on the way from the stadium or to tailgate in the darkness.

But Tua and Lewis are fighting for the undisputed heavyweight title. Not only that, but the fight might not even be the most riveting event of the evening for a Las Vegas boxing fan.

It's not difficult to figure out which of the following is more appealing after watching a live sporting event: A) cracking open a six-pack in a gravel stadium parking lot; or B) plopping down with a free cocktail at a green felt table and playing blackjack until the sun comes up.

Vegas allows its visitors to go ahead and leave their cars -- even that Lamborghini -- with the Mandalay Bay valet. Everything is close enough to hoof it from casino to casino, show to show, dance club to dance club, lounge to lounge.

In fact, fight goers don't even have to leave the casino. Two of the hottest night spots in town -- the House of Blues and Rumjungle -- are under the same roof and are perfect places to glimpse those ringside celebrities. It's also not unheard of for a fan to talk his way into one of the fighters' exclusive parties afterward.

As the fight fans work themselves up and down that glorious stretch of street known as the Strip, it's easy to notice Vegas fight night is not merely Testosterone Central. Scores of ladies dressed to the nines always are ready to party just as hard as the guys. Many are available, but be careful. Not all are free for the evening.

Las Vegas pulsates like a perpetual motion machine.

And on heavyweight fight night its rate escalates. The city is so electrified that, like an urban defibrillator, it can virtually revive someone who's dead on his feet and carry him deeper into the night, later into the morning.

But, in the end, Vegas usually scores the knockout.

"It's always a heartthrob," Ramos said. "It's a very special event you can't really put into words. It's a New Year's Eve-type of feeling. You can't find it anywhere else."

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