Highland, CA (April 19, 2010) – The San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino inside The Pines – one of the primary sponsors of this Saturday night’s highly-anticipated “RING OF FIRE” pro boxing blockbuster in which Poland’s Tomasz “Goral” Adamek (40-1, 27 KOs) will be defending his IBF International Heavyweight Title against top-rated contender and local icon Cristobal “The Nightmare” Arreola (28-1, 25 KOs) in the HBO “Boxing After Dark” televised main event – played host to the promotion’s final press conference today.
Those principals featured on the dais – besides the two main combatants — included Dan Goossen, President of Goossen Tutor Promotions; Kathy Duva, President of Main Events; Adamek’s trainer, Roger Bloodworth; Arreola’s trainer Henry Ramirez; Joel Julio (35-3, 31 KOs), who will participate in the scheduled 12-round WBO Interim Junior Middleweight Title Co-Featured Bout; and his trainer, Anthony Hamm. Julio’s opponent Alfredo Angulo (17-1, 14 KOs) and his promoter, Gary Shaw, were unable to attend..
“RING OF FIRE” will take place at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California. It is being promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions and Main Events in association with Ziggy Promotions and sponsored by Corona and San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino.
QUOTES
GOOSSEN: “Saturday night is a can’t-miss Super Bowl of boxing in the heavyweight division. It will be sure to bring excitement. This fight is something that HBO and both fight camps wanted badly.”
“The heavy weight division needs this fight. The message I’m trying to get out there is that this fight is going to be pure excitement. It’s two fighters looking to knock the other out. Our message to the other weight classes: ‘Emulate what Chris and Adamek do on Saturday night. You have got to be willing to fight one another.’”
“Chris is excitement inside the ring and explosive outside the ring because of his great personality. He’s one of us.”
ARREOLA: “Saturday night is definitely going to be a fight that I will TiVo and watch when I get home. If I wasn’t fighting on Saturday night, this is definitely a fight that I would watch.”
(On Adamek): “He is going to be a hit and run boxer. I am going to have to bring my boxing skills to the ring. I’m going to have to put the pressure on him in order to bring him to fight.”
(On what he expects from himself on Saturday night): “I have had good strength and conditioning and I have learning to move laterally. I want to showcase my skills and solidify everything that my trainer, Henry, and my strength and conditioning coach, Darryl (Hudson), have worked with me on. I have a lot to prove not just for myself but for other people who are working hard for my career to be where it’s at. I want people to know that Dan isn’t just blowing smoke up peoples asses.”
(On training at home for this fight): “In the past it was hard training away from home. Mostly because I am not familiar with an area and that makes it hard for me to know where to eat and to trust whoever is cooking the food. I love going to Yard House Restaurant because I am familiar with the establishment and they know the kind of meals I need to eat while in training. They are able to cook up something healthy and hearty for me to eat.”
(On his weight): “I am going to come in weighing in the high 230’s or low 240s.”
(On criticism he has received): “People who have told me in order to be more marketable that I need to tone it down with my language. I can’t do that because I cannot be what I am not. I have to keep it real. People always tell me that I say things that they wish they could say…. so I feel like it’s an honor for me to be me – to be real.”
RAMIREZ: “We are all looking forward to Saturday’s fight. Chris Arreola is prepared to put on a great performance Saturday night.”
ADAMEK: “I will prove my worth in the ring. May the best man win. There is no weight disadvantage to deal with. The real fighter will win.”
(On the Polish President tragedy): “It’s sad and a travesty. But it’s life. God gives me the power and focus and I will use them on Saturday night.”
BLOODWORTH: “We all know that both Chris and Adamek are coming to fight. May the best man win.”
DUVA: “Joel Julio received a lot of praise early on in his career and he has lived up to that praise.”
JULIO: “I am ready for this fight. Good luck to Adamek and Arreola. God Bless them.”
HAMM: “Julio has more talent than one can imagine. He is 100% ready for this fight – ready to get it on!”
Tickets for “RING OF FIRE” are priced at $250, $100, $70, and $35 and are available at Ticketmaster.com or at the Citizens Business Bank Arena Box Office. For more information please visit CBBankArena.com.
CITIZENS BUSINESS BANK ARENA TO HOST TITLE FIGHT BETWEEN ARREOLA AND ADAMEK SATURDAY, APRIL 24
Los Angeles, CA (April 21, 2010) – Boxing historian Bill O’Neill has seen a lot of great fighters come through Riverside and San Bernardino counties, an area known as the Inland Empire. But few have impressed him more than his favorite current fighter: Cristobal Arreola.
“I love Chris and go over to Indian Willie Schunke’s gym every few weeks to watch him train,” says O’Neill, a former amateur champion, sportswriter and President of the World Boxing Hall of Fame. “I think he has the ability to be world champion someday. It was an unfortunate loss against Klitschko but he’s beaten everybody else. A lot of people don’t realize that Chris was the national Golden Gloves light heavyweight champion at 16 years old. He kind of lost interest in boxing for a couple of years, but he’s got it back now.”
The heavyweight sensation Arreola hopes to put on a show for his growing legion of Inland Empire fans come April 24 when the Riverside resident climbs into the ring against IBF International Heavyweight Champion Tomasz “Goral” Adamek of Jersey City, NJ by way of Zywiec, Poland in a 12-round battle at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif.
Tickets for this “RING OF FIRE” boxing card presented by Goossen Tutor Promotions and Main Events in association with Ziggy Promotions and sponsored by San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino are currently on sale.
O’Neill says you can’t talk about the history of Inland Empire boxing without referencing former featherweight world champion Albert “Chalky” Wright, who was born in
Mexico but whose family settled in San Bernardino shortly after. He fought from 1928 to 1948.
“He was very good and had a brother that was also very good, Earl Wright,” O’Neill says. “He lost his featherweight title to the great Willie Pep.” Wright, whose family still lives in San Bernardino, later went on to become a chauffeur and bodyguard for Mae West.
He died in 1957 at the age of 45 after slipping in his bathtub and drowning. “He died very mysteriously,” O’Neill says. “There were a lot of questions as to how he died for sure.”
David Avila covers boxing in the Inland Empire for the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Avila noted that one of boxing’s greatest fighters of all time, Henry Armstrong, fought several times in San Bernardino before moving on to bigger venues in Los Angeles. Armstrong not only was a member of the exclusive group of fighters that have won boxing championships in three or more different divisions (at a time when there were fewer weight divisions than today), but also has the distinction of being the only boxer to hold three world championships at the same time. He also defended the welterweight championship more times than any other fighter.
Avila also noted that another great area fighter was Manuel Ortiz, who was born in Corona, a city that borders Riverside. Ortiz, who fought from the 1930s to the 1950s, held the record for most title defenses as a bantamweight world champion. “Many experts say that Ortiz was one of the greatest fighters in history, but he fought at bantamweight and seldom got recognition,” Avila says. “Isaiah Zamudios, who fought out of Blythe, was another very good fighter who was a title challenger for many years.”
And of course you can’t speak of boxing in the Inland Empire without mentioning the great “Sugar” Shane Mosley, the pride of Pomona. Mosley still lives in the Inland Empire residing in Big Bear Lake.
“The Inland Empire has had a lot of success in boxing but I see it really ready to explode,” Avila says. “It’s the hottest area around right now with a lot of young prospects. Mainly I think it’s because there’s nothing to do out here.”
Avila said there are more than 30 gyms in the Inland Empire. “That rivals Los Angeles and we’re obviously a way smaller area,” he said. “There will be a lot of good boxer coming out of this area in the near future.”
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