“This really is a classic fight. Two undefeated guys, two champions; I mean, it’s a classic fight. It’s like the 21st century version of Hearns and Leonard or something; it’s like that. These guys are supremely, supremely talented and I think that it’s a perfect fit for the Silverdome and it’s a perfect fit to bring back boxing, with all the legendary fighters that came out of Michigan and Detroit…It’s legendary. You’ve had WWE there. You’ve had 93,000 people there, the biggest indoor live gate in the history of indoor live gates. You had Elvis play there, you had Madonna play there, you had U2 play there, you had the Super Bowls there, you had the World Cup there, so I mean, to have two young, undefeated fighters, both champions, equally matched, and the winner goes on and the loser, he’s still going to go on, but the winner goes on to phenomenal greatness after that. He’s going to emerge as an American superstar. He should be doing it at a super venue. The Silverdome, I honestly, truly, profoundly believe it is the correct venue for this fight,” stated Mike Michael, who brokered the deal with Gary Shaw and Don King to bring the highly-anticipated showdown between jr. welterweight champions Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley to the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. Check out what he had to say about the event, the venue, the attendance and much more.
BT: Hey Mike, the big fight is just around the corner. I’m sure you’re probably as excited as I am about it.
MM: This really is a classic fight. Two undefeated guys, two champions; I mean, it’s a classic fight. It’s like the 21st century version of Hearns and Leonard or something; it’s like that. These guys are supremely, supremely talented and I think that it’s a perfect fit for the Silverdome and it’s a perfect fit to bring back boxing, with all the legendary fighters that came out of Michigan and Detroit, you know what I mean?
BT: So how exactly did the decision to put Alexander vs. Bradley at the Silverdome come about?
MM: First and foremost, I have the exclusive rights to promote boxing, MMA and WWE; I’ve got the sole exclusive rights to promote those events at the venue. Now, because I’ve been in boxing all my life and I’ve had some reasonably good success over the years when I moved from London to the United States, I hooked up with the owner, who happens to be Greek. I happen to have Greek origins in me as well; my mother and father are Greek, but like I said, I was born and raised in London. To some degree, me being Greek did help, but the other thing as well, being one of the very few Greeks in boxing and working at decently reasonable levels, we made a deal and the owner, who’s a very, very nice guy and very, very successful entrepreneur, bought the venue and wants to bring big events there and he doesn’t care. He says, “I want big events. Mike, I want you to go out and find me the biggest events you can and bring them to the venue. I don’t care how long it’s gonna take. I want to establish the venue. I want to get it exposure. I want to create jobs. I want to offer to the city of Pontiac and the city of Detroit…this venue can offer a lot.” Because of it’s fame and notoriety, he wants these things to go on, Ben, so I went out and I spoke with Gary Shaw and Don King, who I know very well and who are two of the most premier promoters in the world, and I thought that the Alexander vs. Bradley fight is a phenomenal fight and I thought that would be a perfect fit for the Silverdome. The way I look at it is like this, it’s one of the biggest indoor venues around, so it’s gotta have one of the biggest fights around. That’s how I looked at it, you know what I mean? So, you know, me and the owner, we spoke about it and I went and spoke with Gary Shaw and Don King, and we came on board and we made the fight. It wasn’t a complicated situation. It’s a great situation; it’s a phenomenal situation. We’re all excited. There’s tremendous media going out. I mean, HBO’s gone above and beyond to market and advertise the fight; the Silverdome the same. The whole of Detroit, in rural areas, is buzzing about the fight. It’s on the radio 24 hours a day. It’s going to be a great situation.
BT: So it doesn’t sound like it was a difficult sale to Gary Shaw and Don King. It sounds like everyone was on board with the idea.
MM: It wasn’t. Gary has been phenomenal. Don has been phenomenal. They got behind the event 110%. I mean, if these two guys don’t know what they’re doing, then who does? These guys, between them, they’ve had a string of legendary champions. I think it’s one of the biggest venues, biggest promoters, biggest fight around; it just all fits like a glove.
BT: I know there’s been some rumors about the ticket sales. Has it been difficult to push the fight in order to fill the seats up in there?
MM: No. Look, this is what people don’t understand, the venue holds 80,000 people, but we have configured the venue to hold 10-15,000. There’s a configuration going in there, okay, where the fight is not going to be for 80,000 people. It’s going to be for 10-15,000 people. That’s what everybody is leaving off the table; that the venue has been configured specifically to do such an event. That’s what me and the owner first discussed. In order to bring fights there…how many events of any kind, not just boxing, but any kind can put 80,000 people in there? So, you know, we configured the venue to 10-15,000. And we can configure it for 20,000, we can configure it for 25,000, we can configure it for 30,000, or we can make a venue in a venue for as many people as we want. And that’s exactly what we’ve done. So everything’s going according to plan. Everybody is happy, we’re excited and that’s basically the bottom line.
BT: I know Michigan has a rich history of boxers hailing from there. Are there any plans to bring in any big names, maybe a James Toney or a Floyd Mayweather, to generate a little more buzz?
MM: I’m not too sure what’s going on with Floyd, but I do know Jean Pascal is going to be there and Chad Dawson is going to be there. There’s going to be a whole bunch of celebrities coming to the event. The Silverdome has a phenomenal network that can reach these people. The promoters as well, you know, their network speaks for itself. They’ve got great PR teams that have reached out to everybody. We’ve got our own host of people flying in from across the country as well, so it’s a big fight. I can tell you this now, I’m looking forward to this fight so much with great anticipation that I can’t even put it into words. That’s how much anticipation I have for this fight. But in addition to that as well, we have a phenomenal fight card on the undercard. We’ve got Vernon Paris vs. Tim Coleman in a championship fight and a whole list of other types of fighters; we’re trying to give everybody the best of all worlds here. We’re trying to provide an entertaining event.
BT: Well, there’s no denying that the fight itself is big, so it probably does deserve a big venue.
MM: I mean, where else could this fight have gone? It’s legendary. You’ve had WWE there. You’ve had 93,000 people there, the biggest indoor live gate in the history of indoor live gates. You had Elvis play there, you had Madonna play there, you had U2 play there, you had the Super Bowls there, you had the World Cup there, so I mean, to have two young, undefeated fighters, both champions, equally matched, and the winner goes on and the loser, he’s still going to go on, but the winner goes on to phenomenal greatness after that. He’s going to emerge as an American superstar. He should be doing it at a super venue. The Silverdome, I honestly, truly, profoundly believe it is the correct venue for this fight.
BT: So as far as ticket sales are concerned, you’re pleased with where they’re at and everything is fine?
MM: Yeah, everybody is pleased. We’re all pleased. Everything’s going according to plan. We’ve got a terrific PR team that’s doing their job, we’ve got HBO…as far as we’re concerned, this is the first step in many many other events that we want to bring there. We’re talking to Dana White as well to bring a UFC event there. We’re also talking to Scott Coker to bring a Strikeforce event. We’re talking about bringing some other world championship fights there as well. There’s a whole host of other events, with concerts and everything, that are going to take place there. The owner is one of the best guys you’ll ever meet. The general manager is a great great guy as well; really on the ball. We’ve got a great great team that has a lot of vision of where we want the venue to be after a certain period of time, so this is just the first step of many other steps. This will give us the exposure that we want. It’s just a great situation for everybody, Ben.
BT: I don’t want to keep you on too long Mike. I just wanted to get the real deal on how the event is shaping up. I’m definitely looking forward to the first big fight of 2011. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
MM: I just want to say I really have a lot of respect for the owner, who bought the venue, stepped up and wants to get into the top level sports, like boxing, mixed martial arts and soccer. Previously, in August [2010], the owner brought in two soccer teams, AC Milan and Panathinaikos, from Greece, and 35-40,000 people showed up. I mean, that’s a pretty good number for a soccer game in the United States. So there’s big plans and big events that are going to take place there. We’re looking to shock everybody with the quality of high-level events we can produce. This is a great fight. These two guys are going to give us a fight that is going to be a memorable fight. I went and found Gary, who I’ve previously worked with before on Shobox events, I know Don, and we all collectively came together and made this happen. Everybody collectively together made this happen and that makes me feel very, very pround, as well as having the rights to the venue to do the first event on HBO World Championship Boxing this year with two of the biggest promoters in the world. It’s going to be a great fight, Ben, really. When I first went out to get the fight, I knew how good of a fight it was going to be. I really did. It’s a testament to the promoters to come together and actually make the fight. Two undefeated guys, they could have always avoided each other, but I think it’s a testament that Gary Shaw and Don King came together in collaboration with HBO to make this fight and give it to the boxing fans, the viewers, the Silverdome, the live paying attendance, whomever else is going to watching; I think it’s just an honor to have this fight. And I gotta say congratulations to both of the fighters. I met them for the first time and they are phenomenal human beings. I really enjoyed their company, how their demeanor was, the trainers, Kevin Cunningham and Joel Diaz, I mean, they were great great people. It’s going to be a great fight.
