SACRAMENTO (Sept. 27, 2007) – Two of boxing’s all-time greats and true superstars, Roy Jones Jr. and Felix “Tito” Trinidad, will work Don King’s stellar fight card Saturday night at at Sacramento’s ARCO Arena. The future boxing Hall of Famers will join Don King at the final press conference on Thursday promoting Saturday’s world championship twin-bill in Northern California.
Jones and Trinidad will serve as color analysts for the international broadcast of the sensational Don King Productions-promoted fight card, which is being presented in association with Maloof Sports & Entertainment, headlined by the World Boxing Council (World Boxing Council) light heavyweight championship between defending titleholder “Bad” Chad Dawson of New Haven, Conn., and Colombia’s Epifanio Mendoza.
The legendary former world champions, who clash in an eagerly awaited 12-round bout on pay-per-view Jan. 19, 2008, at Madison Square Garden, will join blow-by-blow announcer Rich Marotta at ringside Saturday night. Trinidad and Jones will fight at 170 pounds.
Long recognized as the world’s most talented pound-for-pound boxer, Jones (51-4, 38 KOs), of Pensacola, Fla., held the coveted 175-pound WBC green belt for nearly seven years (August 1997 to May 2004) and he’ll be ringside to see if Dawson, who holds the same green belt that Jones held for those many years, can keep his undefeated streak going. Jones, 38, last entered the ring July 14, 2007, when he won a unanimous decision against Anthony Hanshaw for the vacant IBC light heavyweight championship. Jones won an Olympic silver medal in 1988 and was a five-time world champion in four different weight classes.
Trinidad (42-2, 35 KOs), of Cupey Alto, Puerto Rico, is an ex-world champion at welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight and is returning to the ring after more than two years. He holds the distinction of having beaten three former Olympic gold medalists (Pernell Whitaker, David Reid, Oscar De La Hoya). The 34-year-old has always been a fan favorite due to his electrifying, wide-open style that served him well with an 80 per cent career knockout ratio.
In addition to the Dawson-Mendoza championship bout Saturday night, the co-feature will pit Luis Perez (25-1, 21 KOs) of Managua, Nicaragua, risking his International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight belt against Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko (24-1, 21 KOs) of Accra, Ghana.
Doors open for the seven-bout card at the ARCO Arena at 3 p.m. Saturday with the first bell at 3:45 p.m. The first of two world championships will walk to the ring shortly after 7 p.m.
Tickets priced at $30, $50, $75, $100 and $250 are on sale now and may be purchased most easily by calling Ticketmaster Charge-By-Phone at (916) 649-TIXS or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com . Tickets are also available at the ARCO Arena Box Office and at all Sacramento-area Ticketmaster outlets. Both world championships will be televised on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).