You might that think that economically depressed Motown is no town to host a major boxing event.
Evidently, Big Gary Shaw and Don King, the Oddfellas co-promoters behind the Devon Alexander-Timothy Bradley junior welterweight unification bout set for Jan. 29 don’t share the widespread pessimism about the Greater Detroit market.
Obviously, had a Las Vegas or Atlantic City casino-hotel stepped forward with an enticing bid, the stimulating matchup between the St. Louis boxer and the unbeaten fighter from the Palm Springs area would have been held within the ring-a-ding sound of slot machines.
Instead, Shaw confirmed to me moments ago, press conferences are being planned for Detroit on Tuesday and New York City on Wednesday with the site being the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich.
The huge stadium will be set up for a 15,000 seating capacity.
“We wanted a neutral site,” Shaw said, “so we did not want (the Scottstrade Center) St. Louis. But, more importantly, King and I felt it was vital to go to a market with a big African American population and so we looked at Atlanta and Detroit. I was talking to people at Georgia Tech as the Atlanta location.
“We just agreed that the Detroit area was a natural for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the area’s very rich boxing history,” Shaw said. “I think you have to reach back maybe as far as Thomas Hearns (from Detroit) and Sugar Ray Leonard to find such a significant bout in the lower weight classes between two black American boxers. You had Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield and George Foreman-Michael Moorer but those were heavyweight fights.”
Alexander manager-trainer and ex-St. Louis cop Kevin Cunningham publicly griped about the site not being firmed up the other day but Shaw said there was really no behind the scenes dispute between he and King.
“You had a lot of smoke, a lot of noise but I feel we picked the right venue for this key fight.”
HBO will televise the fight which might produce a new candidate for the Manny Pacquiao Sweepstakes.
