This Saturday night a battle between two world rated junior welterweights takes place between Kenneth Sims and Oscar Duarte. It's a solid pairing that will be the DAZN main event. What's notable about this card is that Golden Boy Promotions is staging it at the Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago.
Yeah, it's their kind of town.
There was a time when Chicago regularly hosted big time boxing. But like other cities like Philadelphia that were once fight cities, it's really part of a bygone era. But the reasoning for this promotion being placed in 'the Windy City' is very logical.
Golden Boy Promotions
"Kenneth Sims is from Chicago and when we first signed him we talked about potentially coming here," said Eric Gomez, president of GBP. "It was always a hotbed for boxing, there's a lot of Mexican fans here, you put up good fights and people will come out."
Golden Boy has been here in the past. Years ago they did a Telefutura card here that featured Frankie Gomez (remember him?) and the rematch between Paulie Malignaggi and Juan Diaz back in 2009.
"It's been awhile, there really hasn't really been too much activity with the bigger promoters," Gomez told SNAC.com. "So we're trying to spark something up. So far the response has been very good."
Golden Boy Promotions
Chicago has not been completely dormant in the 21st century. Fernando Vargas faced Javier Castillejos in Chi-town in 2005, as did Lamon Brewster against local favorite Andrew Golota. A couple of years later David Diaz (who hailed from this city) faced Erik Morales. More recently, Oleksandr Usyk made his heavyweight debut against Chazz Witherspoonn at the Wintrust Arena in 2019.
All of these cards drew pretty well. It will be interesting to see how this weekends event does during the dog days of summer. You have a boxer who hails from this city versus a fighter where there is a good number of his people. It sounds so logical, but unfortunately more and more of these fights in the past few decades have been shipped off to casinos who offer site fees and free rooms.
But Gomez notes, "it depends on what level fight it is. If you have a real hot fight, the fans will come out. Some of the smaller fights with some of the fighters that might not be recognized, you do want to go to the casinos. It's safer. But when you have a good fight, or a kid that's from the hometown, sometimes you roll the dice, and take a chance.
"So far, we're coming out good with this one."
Golden Boy Promotions
If you look at the US markets, it's been shown that marquee fighters can draw well in their home region. From Terence Crawford in Omaha, Nebraska, to Gervonta Davis in the Beltway, and Errol Spence in Dallas, Texas. Should Sims -- who is throwing out the first pitch this week at a White Sox game -- come up big in the fight 𝘢𝘯𝘥 the box-office, Golden Boy wouldn't hesitate to return.
"Of course," stated Gomez, "that's the only reason for going to a certain city. A kid has success, he's a champion, or on the verge of becoming a superstar or something like that, you'll take the chance. Especially if a fighter has fans that will travel to go see him."
Longtime publicist, Bernie Bahrmasel, is working with GBP this week to promote this show. A native of Chicago, he will tell anyone and everyone that Chicago should be a regular destination for major boxing events. 'BB' points out that on August 16, 2013 that ESPN's 'Friday Night Fights' went to White Sox ballpark with a main event featuring Andrezj Fonfara-Gabriel Campillo and had over 13,500 in attendance.
Ozzie Guillen with Kenneth Sims
Chicago has a population of 2.6 million and is the third rated media market in America. Wouldn't boxing be better off if it had a consistent presence here?
Bahrmasel says simply: "Chicago -- the best boxing fans, the toughest fighters, the greatest city in the world."
3KR
This week on 'the 3 Knockdown Rule' Mario Lopez and I look back at last weeks Top Rank/ESPN finale, and preview this aforementioned card:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRZxjMYJJRs
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