On August 14, 2009, Desert Diamond Casino and Golden Boy Promotions will partner up for the 24th time to offer Southern Arizona fans and ESPN2 viewers a lineup of supreme boxing entertainment. The action gets under way at 6:30 PM, with televised bouts on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” starting at 7:00 PM. Tickets are on sale now and range from $25 to $120 in advance. They can be purchased at any Ticketmaster location, by calling 1-800-745-3000, by contacting the Desert Diamond Casino Box Office, or by visiting www.desertdiamondcasino.com. Doors open at 5:30 PM..
The main event of the evening features former world champion Vivian “Vicious” Harris (29-3-1, 19 KOs) out of Brooklyn, New York. Harris held the WBA Junior Welterweight belt from 2002 to 2005, holding off opponents such as Diosbelys Hurtado and Oktay Urkal during his reign. Harris faces Noe “Platanito” Bolanos (20-4-1, 11 KOs) from Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico in a 10-round junior welterweight bout.
Rising star Danny Garcia (13-0, 7 KOs) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, widely regarded as one of the top prospects in the sport today, will square off against an opponent yet to be announced in an eight-round junior welterweight bout.
The first of two scheduled heavyweight fights includes the United States’ only boxing medalist from the 2008 Olympics, Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder (6-0, 6 KOs). He was last seen at Desert Diamond Casino on June 26, 2009 where he earned a round-one KO over Kelsey Arnold. He will look to keep his knockout streak alive in a four-round bout against Travis Allen (3-4, 3 KOs) of Atchison, Kansas.
Local fan-favorite Annette “Netta” Agredano (4-0) returns for her second consecutive fight at the Diamond Center after earning a unanimous decision win over Jessica Sanchez on June 26th. Agredano will face fellow Tucsonan, Allison Cole (1-1) in a four-round featherweight fight.
Adding more local flavor to the evening will be Tucson’s Joshua Renteria (15-3, 9 KOs) battling it out against Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield (9-0-1, 6 KOs) of the San Francisco, California area. Mayfield, who also designs clothes and is known to lay down a rhyme, won the 2006 San Francisco Golden Gloves championship and has sparred with the likes of Ricky Hatton and Zab Judah. The two will fight in a 6-round junior middleweight bout.
Rounding out the local flavor of the card is Robert Sockwell (2-1, 2 KOs) of Tucson who will take on cross state rival Martin Vierra (4-2, 1 KO) from Phoenix.
The second heavyweight bout of the evening will feature Seth “Mayhem” Mitchell (11-0-1, 7 KOs), a former stand-out linebacker at Michigan State in an eight-round heavyweight scrap against an opponent to be determined.
One of the most devastating young punchers in the sport, Keith “One Time” Thurman (9-0, 9 KOs) out of Clearwater, Florida, will make his second consecutive appearance in front of Tucson-area fans. Thurman won six national championships as an amateur and captured the silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Trials. He will face the vastly more experienced Travis Hartman (10-13-1, 7 KO’s) of St. Joseph, Missouri in a six-round junior middleweight fight.
“Having personally attended the last two Golden Boy shows at Desert Diamond Casino, I know how alive the room becomes when the action heats up in the ring,” said Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar de la Hoya. “I expect August 14th to be no different as we present a great card stacked top to bottom with tremendously talented fighters in great fights.”
Treena Parvello, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Tohono O’odham Gaming Enterprise, said, “The August 14th card has not only a former world champion—Vivian Harris—but also promising prospects and local favorites. The crowd loved Tucson’s Netta Agredano on June 26th and Desert Diamond Casino is pleased to bring her back for the fans!”
Desert Diamond Casino on Pima Mine Road, Desert Diamond Casino♦Hotel on Nogales Highway, and the Golden Ha:san in Why, Arizona, are enterprises of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Further information can be found at www.desertdiamondcasino.com or by calling 866-DDC-WINS.
GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS SIGNS “VICIOUS” VIVIAN HARRIS
FORMER JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPION PROMISES FIREWORKS ON ROAD TO ANOTHER WORLD TITLE
LOS ANGELES, August 3, 2009 – Pound for pound, there are few fighters who bring excitement like former Junior Welterweight World Champion “Vicious” Vivian Harris. Now eager to make another run at the top of the division, Harris has teamed up with a new promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, to help take him there.
“Vivian Harris has always been a great fighter to watch, simply because of the excitement he brings to the ring,” said Oscar de la Hoya, President of Golden Boy Promotions. “He is without a doubt one of the premier junior welterweights in the world and now it’s time to remind the boxing world of that fact. We will do our job to put Vivian in big fights that will have the fight fans cheering.”
“I’d like to thank Oscar and the team at Golden Boy Promotions for the faith they are showing me,” said Harris. “I’ve been in this game a long time, but I’m not done reaching my boxing goals yet. People know what I can do when I’m on and I feel better physically and mentally than I ever have. Expect fireworks from me each time I’m in the ring from now on.”
A native of Georgetown, Guyana who moved to Brooklyn, New York as a teenager, Vivian Harris (29-3-1, 19 KO’s) quickly made his mark on the Big Apple boxing scene for his exciting style and punching power. After winning 21 of his first 23 professional bouts (with the only blemishes being a controversial draw with Ivan Robinson and a decision loss to Ray Oliveira), Harris won the WBA World Super Lightweight Title with a second round knockout of Diosbelys Hurtado on October 19, 2002. Harris defended his title three times before losing it to Carlos Maussa in June of 2005, but he has since bounced back with wins in four of his last five fights, including victories over Stevie Johnston and Juan Lazcano. In his most recent bout on October 29, 2008, Harris stopped Octavio Narvaez in six rounds.
A date and opponent for Harris’ first bout with Golden Boy Promotions will be announced shortly. For more information on Golden Boy Promotions, please visit www.goldenboypromotions
Burchfield and Cappiello join forces
PROVIDENCE (Aug. 3, 2009) – Longtime New England boxing promoters, Jimmy Burchfield and Rich Cappiello, have joined forces and pooled their resources under Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment and Sports, Inc. (CES) banner.
Burchfield, operating out of Providence (RI) for the past quarter-century, and the Brockton (MA)-based Cappiello have been the two most dominant boxing promoters in New England for the past 15 years.
“Rich has a great talent for evaluating, signing and moving prospects,” Burchfield said. “Fighter development will be one of his primary responsibilities and he’ll help strengthen CES in many ways. You don’t know how this boxing business works unless you’ve done it and you’ve paid your dues. Rich has done all of that for years. He knows what it takes. We both believe in this move. Rich has developed a lot of valuable relationships that will help CES.
“We want to expand our market to include Philadelphia, New Jersey, parts of New York, and all of New England. The bottom line is filling up arenas. To do so, we must give fans more value for their entertainment dollar, which is more important than ever in these trying times. Pooling our resources like this makes so much sense. Everybody involved in CES is supporting this move because it strengthens our position.
“What we’re doing is a good example of what was discussed at the recent Boxing Promoters Association. We want to be one of the strongest promoters in the country and, to do that, we have to work with each other. We already have a strong team and it’s even stronger now with the addition of Rich Cappiello. You can’t buy his experience in this business.”
Cappiello, who also owns a gym in Brockton, wanted to go in another direction. “In today’s bad economic times,” he said, “working together makes a lot of sense. It makes both of us stronger. I’m confident that this will be a permanent relationship. I talked about doing this with some other promoters, but I know that Jimmy was the best fit. We competed, as promoters, but there were no vendettas. I’m a New Englander and I feel better working with somebody who has worked here for so long and I can meet with by just driving a few miles.
“The economics of boxing are so different today that it’s become difficult to survive. Other guys are coming into New England but, working together, we will be able to dominate this area. For me, it’s basically a merger, but it’s still CES. I just want to build champions and I can be much more effective doing that this way. We’ve discussed this for a while, not just once or twice. I still have about 15 fighters under contract, including some good young talent that will eventually fight for CES. I see myself doing different things for CES. I’ll be concentrating on things such as fighter development instead of being involved with all aspects of running the business. It’s going to be a process, but we’re going to make a good team.”