Earlier this week at the
Galen Center at USC, where Bermane Stiverne and Chris Arreola battle for the
vacant WBC heavyweight title tonight, promoter Dan Goossen was sitting in the
bleachers of the Trojans men’s basketball gym where his man, Arreola was
shadowboxing in a makeshift ring during a media workout. Goossen understands
that while he might have a really good fight on his hands, it might be a tough
sell out here in Los Angeles as it is being overshadowed by other events.
Just down the street on
Figueroa Boulevard at the Staples Center, there are playoff games involving the
Clippers and Kings throughout the weekend and the Dodgers face their hated
rivals, the Giants from up north at Chavez Ravine. Yeah, there's a lot going on
regarding sports in the “City of Angels.”
“Listen, I know there's a
lot going on but I think we've got a great heavyweight title fight here and
that's my focus. But yeah, I'm a Kings fan and geez…,”said Goossen with a laugh,
realizing that when you promote an event in a major city like Los Angeles, you
will have some sort of competition for the entertainment dollar. What helps is
that boxing has recently been on a solid run of fights like last weekend’s
tussle between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana.
“It's always nice. It pumps
everyone up; there's no doubt about it. When you have good, competitive fights,
it keeps the fans on a high and we've had some good fights back-to-back. Look
at John Molina and Lucas Matthysse. So the fans are now getting some good
fights. I've said that the sport is now turned around tremendously and that
doesn't mean that just because you put a great fight that it's always going to
sell out or anything," explained Goossen, who understands that the past
indiscretions of Arreola might be held against him by the paying public.
But as he sees a relatively
svelte Arreola moving around the ring, Goossen states, “Look, I've read a lot
of things about Chris and a lot of the fans are saying, ‘Oh, well, we want to
see it to believe it,’ but look, with Chris, you can see it visually. He's in
tip-top shape.”
Right now the region is in
the midst of a strong run of fights. A couple of weeks ago, a card televised by
Showtime and promoted by Golden Boy Promotions was held at the StubHub Center
in Carson. Next week, Top Rank Promotions has an event at the Forum featuring
Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Mike Alvarado.
Of this dynamic, Goossen
says, “I think we're in the position right now to put the stamp of approval on
the type of fights that are being brought here to Los Angeles. I mean, when you
really think about it, with Golden Boy doing the StubHub show just recently,
Bob Arum is doing the one right after this one. There's some big fights that
are coming out to Los Angeles and I'm going to hearken back to my old stomping
grounds. I can remember what got me involved in boxing, which was going to the
Olympic Auditorium because it was electric and you could guarantee and sell out
virtually every week.
“That's how great it was. So
I believe that it's just a matter of conditioning and things like that and let
the fans know when we say it's a great fight, that it is a great fight and
Saturday, Stiverne and Arreola are going to prove it. Stiverne's a tough cat. I
mean, he's no pushover and Chris is going to have to go out there and impose
his will on him.”
HEAT
Things finally got testy
between Stiverne and Arreola at the final press conference on Thursday (and
call me naive but I don't think this was a ploy to boost ticket sales):
GALEN CENTER
This will be the first
boxing event hosted by the Galen Center (the basketball home of the USC
Trojans) and if you're thinking of dropping by, here's the ticket info:
Tickets
priced at $300, $200, $100, $50 and $25 (plus fees) for the Heavyweight World
Championship night of boxing are available through the USC Ticket Office
located in the Student Union, 213-740-4672 (GOSC), or www.galentix.com or www.ticketmaster.com. Doors will open on the day of
the event at 3:00 p.m. PT with the first bell at 3:30 p.m. PT.
WARD
So what does Goossen have to say about the
constant ongoing battle with Andre Ward?
“It's not a matter that I don't have any
comment; I'd love to say a lot of things. Listen, it's not that I'm not saying
things because there's an ongoing legal case. I'm just not saying things
because there's nothing good that I could say if I was going to say something,”
said the promoter on Tuesday afternoon.
“What am I going to do? Say that it's
ridiculous? I'm not here to do anything other than to try to do the right thing
and get our fighter back into the ring and it's their choices. I don't have
control over that.”
WEEKEND
FLURRIES
The Stiverne-Arreola II broadcast on ESPN
starts at 8 p.m., ET/5 p.m., PT, so plan accordingly...It's a free preview
weekend on Showtime and the epilogue episode of “All Access: Mayweather-Maidana”
airs Saturday night at 9:30 p.m...However this works out, the Cleveland Browns
are now must-see-TV this upcoming season with Johnny Football...I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.
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I can be reached
at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.
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