GL: Can you give us some final thoughts on the Vic Darchinyan- Nonito Donaire flyweight title fight this weekend? “It’s going to be a very exciting fight, a lot tougher than most people think and maybe even tougher than Vic is expecting. Vic is a great world champion defending again. Nonito Donaire is not only fighting for the title, but the glory of his family after his brother took a bad loss to Darchinyan. He moves a lot faster than his brother so I think Vic is going to have his hands full on Saturday night.”
GL: If Darchinyan is successful where does he go from there? Is Jorge Arce still a possibility?
Gary Shaw: “Arce is a possibility. You have to remember that we had a lot of money on the table from HBO and Showtime to make the fight with Farce. But he opted to take a terrible beating from Mijares and now the networks aren’t financially interested in the fight the same way. Right now I’m tryin to get the Thai (Wonjongkam) but I don’t believe they’ll fight him so it looks like we’re going to move up to fight Mijares or someone of that ilk as we look to campaign at 115 pounds.”
GL: Any new details on the return of Awesome Dawson?
GS: “I believe that you’re going to see him in the early part of the fall. We’ve got some big things we’re working on, nothing is set yet. But we look to have something soon. We’ve always said we want the other champions to step up and we meant that.”
GL: What’s the latest with the Elite XC events?
GS: “Our ShoXC series, which is will be what Shobox is to boxing. Our first event will take place on July 27. We’re very excited about that. We’ll do another fight in August and then we’ll be in Hawaii on September 15. I’ve been making a lot of good acquisitions, which I’ll be able to annonce pretty soon. Obviously we have a reality show deal with MarC Burnett that’s been announced so everyting is going great.”
GL: Witter-Harris is a done deal. Can you give us some thoughts on that?
GS: “Mick Hennessy kept his word, which is pretty unusual for promoters, but Mick kept his word. Now we’re going to go over there come back with the belt and probably scare Ricky Hatton back up to welterweight.”
GL: Anthony Hanshaw came to his senses and signed his bout…
GS: (cutting in) “He certainly did and now I believe he’s not only going to beat Roy Jones Jr., he’s going to knock him out cold. Stiff as a board. I’m going to have Vic at 112 and 115, Vivian at 140, Hanshaw at 168 and 175 along with Awesome Dawson, so the guns at GSP are loaded with hollow points.”
GL: Is there anythin you’d like to say in closing?
GS: “We’ve got some great fights lined up, don’t miss them. Boxing is far from dead.”
