I made a few calls and from what I am told that is simply not accurate reporting. I am told by those in the know that the real number is more than 2,000.
This is what ESPN scribe Dan Rafael posted at 2:14 pm on Friday, about 24 hours after my exclusive Examiner report that, as of Thursday morning, 339 tickets had been purchased for the Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander clash of undefeated junior welterweight champions at that mausoleum known as the Pontiac Silverdome.
Has Dandy Dan contradicted me?
Or is that 1,600 tickets were reported to be accounted for to him because that includes the first four rows on all four sides of the ring which have been reserved for co-promoters Don King and Big Gary Shaw and, of course, the company funding not only this but the next three bouts for both Alexander and Bradley meaning HBO?
If my initial report was wrong–please notice that, just like me, Dan was not able to attribute a name to his sources–then how come I did not get an angy phone call from Messrs. Shaw or King or any of their minions?
I know the mail is slow but I didn’t get any snail mail or emails asking for a retraction, threatening legal action or anything as fun and amusing as all that.
Nobody said bleep.
Isn’t this totally credible given that:
1. Neither Tiny Tim nor Devon The Great are from Metro Detroit or the state of Michigan?
2. Even with the recent financial uplift at Ford, Metro Detroit including Pontiac remains an economic disaster zone?
3. Shaw and King did a show in Sunrise, Fl. Fort Lauderdale) where the crowd was announced as over 11,000 but the actual paid ticket count was a sizzling 172? That hot ticket seller had a main event featuring an Aussie of Armenian extraction (Vic Darchinyan) against an African named King Kong Agbeko?
4. That Las Vegas and Atlantic City spurned this attractive matchup?
5. That Shaw could not believe he found an all day sucker willing to pay he and DK $600,000 to try to inject some life into this white elephant, this 80,000 seat domed stadium that has been as lifeless as cemetery since the NFL Lions took a powder?
6. That Alexander’s manager-trainer Kevin Cunningham reiterated to me on the record last week that the fight should’ve gone into a 12,000 seat venue in his and his boxer’s hometown, a venue which ex-cop Kev said would’ve sold out in 10-15 days?
7. That, according to reports by bloodhound Steve Kim (Maxboxing), Shaw has had to paper the house with giveaway tickets for Bradley in his hometown?
I rest my case.
Plenty of good seats still available as the saying goes…
King knows how to put on a ground game, how to move the ducats. Unfortunately, he’s trimmed his staff in recent years due to a diminished roster of fighters.
And King was understably preoccupied, while Shaw sought a neutral site, with the illness and death of his beloved wife, Henrietta.
Had King spent two weeks in Motown, the box office would be energized, no bout, as he would have worked the hustings and hit every radio and TV microphone in the vicinity.
Look, shoot the Marley messenger all you wish.
Don;t you think if my solid source told me 2,000 or 3,000 or 5,000 tickets were actually sold I would have reported that? That would’ve been more surprising.
HBO seems not to care about the live gate but they should.
Having said all that, I hope that 23 year old lefty Devon and 27 year old bad boy Tim can produce a firecracker of a fight. I was leaning to Devon and now I’m thinking Bradley may win on the basis of hitting harder if less frequently.
I hope the live gate is not a disaster when the first bell for the main event rings.
I don’t see any way possible this will be a stinker like Andrew Golota-Mike Tyson was at the Palace at Auburn Hills when 16,228 turned up to see mental case Golota quit in two rounds against an enraged Tyson.
I want to see boxing, especially young guys like these two thrive.
Until then, keep shooting the messenger.
But blanks don’t really bother me.
