|
|
|
|
|
FIREWORKS AT THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF KING'S 'UNDISPUTED BACK-TO-BACK-BACK,' SET FOR DECEMBER 13 ON HBO PPV
10/10/03
By Elisa Harrison
Don King's "Undisputed Back-to-Back-to-Back" blockbuster is set for Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City this coming December 13. The star studded event, which is sure to warm up the otherwise cool ocean breeze on the boardwalk, will begin at 8:00 PM ET, live on HBO Pay-Per-View and internationally by DK International Sales carried on KingVision, and will be promoted by Don King Productions in association with Caesars Atlantic City, Bally's Atlantic City and CMXchange.
A press conference was recently held in Manhattan to officially announce the high profile show and to bring together its main eventers. It was confirmed that due to nagging promotional and managerial problems, David Tua has been replaced by John "The Quietman" Ruiz in a bout versus Hasim "The Rock" Rahman. The winner of the Rahman-Ruiz fight will become the WBA "interim" heavyweight champion, since Roy Jones Jr. opted to fight again as a lightweight rather than defend the WBA belt he won with a victory over Ruiz, and of course both Ruiz and Rahman expressed an interest in getting a shot at Jones.
Bernard Hopkins (42-2-1, 31 KOs), the long-reigning middleweight champion from Philadelphia, Pa., has the IBF, WBC 160-pound belts, and is recognized as the Super Champion by the WBA. He is making a record 18th defense of the middleweight crown he won on April 29, 1995 by stopping Segundo Mercado in the 7th round in Landover, Md. Hopkins instigated a scuffle when he decided to take on his opponent William Joppy's entire entourage. A disruption ensued when "The Executioner" charged off the dais to engage a half-dozen Joppy backers present in the hosting midtown Manhattan hotel ballroom.
Hopkins produced a duffel bag reportedly filled with $50,000 in cold cash, daring the Joppy crowd to bet him on their fight.
"Empty your pockets right now!" shouted Hopkins, as members of his posse moved in to break things up. "The bet is on. If not, shut up!"
With a judge's decision to add 9% interest to the $600,000+ already awarded to Lou DiBella in their recent lawsuit, and pending litigation by former trainer and mentor Bouie Fisher, Hopkins might want to think twice about engaging in heavy duty gambling.
Joppy (34-2-1, 25 KOs), from Silver Spring, Md., is a three-time WBA Middleweight Champion. He first won the title in Yokohama, Japan, where he stopped Shinji Takehara to capture the crown via a 9th round TKO. He then successfully defended the title twice, before losing a controversial decision in Madison Square Garden in New York to Dominican Julio Cesar Green on Aug. 23, 1997. He regained the belt from Green January 31, 1998 in Tampa, Fla. with a unanimous decision. He then made 4-straight defenses of the title only to lose it to Felix "Tito" Trinidad in Madison Square Garden in the WMCS, getting stopped in the 5th round.
Smooth boxing Joppy wasted no time attacking Hopkins over his criminal record, a strong armed robbery conviction which netted Hopkins five years in the big house. Joppy also questioned Hopkins' recent inactivity, because although Bernard has defended his title 17 times, by December he will have fought just once in the last 22 months.
Not to be outdone, WBA and WBC champion welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga and IBF welterweight champion Cory Spinks engaged in a bilingual verbal war of their own.
The "all out" emerging super-star Mayorga (25-3-1, 22 KOs), from Managua, Nicaragua, the WBA/WBC Champion, is fast becoming a Latino hero. He's won his last three successive title-fights, besting highly regarded champions beginning with Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis on March 30, 2002 to win the WBA belt. On January 25, 2003 he added the WBC welterweight title in spectacular and devastating style by knocking out the previously undefeated 2002 Boxer of the Year Vernon Forrest, who had just come off two successive victories over "Sugar" Shane Mosley, with a 3rd round TKO. He then, in very impressive fashion, defeated Forrest, again as the underdog, on July 12, 2003 in Las Vegas, NV.
The mischievous "bad boy" image Mayorga has established, smoking a cigar or cigarette from time to time or enjoying a beer and fast cars, only adds to his growing celebrity. In addition, he just signed multi-fight agreements to meet De La Hoya, Mosley, Margarito, Vargas, and Bernard Hopkins. He has also agreed to go over to Iraq and perform an exhibition for the troops with his promoter Don King. Most importantly ? Ricardo Mayorga always comes to fight!
Spinks (31-2, 10 KOs), from St. Louis, Mo., is the son of former world heavyweight champion Leon Spinks. He is a talented southpaw-boxing master who won the IBF Welterweight Championship on March 22, 2003 in Campione D'Italia, Italy with a solid unanimous decision over Italian world champion Michele Piccirillo. It was sweet revenge for Spinks, who lost to Piccirillo for the vacant title, via a controversial decision, in the same ring the previous year.
The rest of the card includes title defenses by WBO junior welter champion Zab Judah and Jaime Rangel; by WBA super welterweight champion Alejandro "Terra" Garcia and by IBF junior flyweight champion Victor Burgos. Opponents have not yet been announced for Garcia and Burgos.
Zab "Super" Judah (29-1, 21 KOs) from Brooklyn, NY made his pro debut as a 19-year old on September 20, 1996 with a send-round TKO. On June 7, 1998, he won the USBA junior welterweight title against Micky Ward (W-12) and two years later, on February 12, 2000 won the IBF junior lightweight title. After winning that USBA title, Judah ran off a string of eleven victories, including ten inside the distance. He defended the IBF title six times, five of which were KOs. Then, on November 3, 2001, in a unification bout against Kostya Tszyu, Judah lost (TKO-2) in a bout he thought was stopped prematurely. Judah has rebounded with back-to-back wins, the second being the WBO jr. welterweight title against Demarcus Corley on July 12, 2003.
Alejandro "Terra" Garcia (22-0, 21 KOs) from Tijuana, Mexico made his pro debut at 169-pounds on February 4, 2000. He had eleven bouts that year, six of which didn't make it outside of the first round and only one of them going the distance. In 2001, Garcia had seven fights and seven TKO's and won the NABO jr. middleweight title on December 17. On March 1, 2003 in Garcia's first world title fight, he knocked Santiago Samaniego out in the third round to win the WBA super welterweight title. On September 20, 2003, he defended made a successful defense against Roshii Wells (TKO-10).
Don King glowed through it all, adding "The brother's got smoke coming out his ears," in reference to Hopkins. "I'm scared to death, Lord have mercy," said Mr. King, who is reportedly suing Lennox Lewis, US-based boxing promotion company Lion Promotions, and Judd Burstein, Lewis' and Lion's New York lawyer, for libel in England over articles on two UK-based boxing websites which labeled him an anti-Semite. All and all, the promoter rated the event as "magnificent."
Tickets for "BACK-to-BACK-to-BACK," priced at $600, $400, $250, $150, $100 and $50, are available at the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Box Office, by calling DKP Tickets at 1-800-589-4860, TicketMaster at 1-800-736-1420 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com.
BraggingRightsCorner.com
|
|
|
|
|
