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10/18/2005 Archived Entry: ""
Will Portland prize Mayweather fight?
By STEVE BRANDON
Issue date: Tue, Oct 18, 2005
The Portland Tribune
"Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather Jr. is "the best fighter in the world today," says Los Angeles promoter Dan Goossen. Portland fans will get a chance to judge for themselves.
Mayweather, the World Boxing Council super lightweight champion, will take a 34-0 record into the ring at the Rose Garden Nov. 19 in a 12-round welterweight bout against Sharmba Mitchell, a former world champion.
The card is expected to start at 5 p.m. It will be on the same day as the Oregon-Oregon State football game, which is scheduled for a 3:45 p.m. kickoff.
"We're not going to take away from them. There's enough for everyone," Goossen says. "We've got two Civil Wars going the same night, because Mayweather and Mitchell will certainly be in that category."
HBO will televise the fight live, with no pay-per-view.
Goossen says Portland landed the bout in part because of the Nike Inc.-sponsored Roy Jones Jr. win over Clinton Woods. That fight drew a crowd of 16,000 to the Rose Garden in 2002. "Roy Jones and us are partners in (Olympic gold medalist) Andre Ward," Goossen says, "and Roy had nothing but the deepest respect for the event he had in Portland."
Ward also will fight on the Nov. 19 card, and "Jordan Brand," a division of Nike, will sponsor the event," Goossen says.
"Goossen says he'd like to have Mayweather, 28, and Mitchell, 35, come to Portland for "a little treat of open workouts" before the fight, but that has yet to be arranged.
Mitchell is 56-4, with two losses to former International Boxing Federation junior welterweight champ Kostya Tszyu, the most recent on a third-round TKO in November 2004. "He's played the big stage before," Goossen says. "He believes he's as quick as Floyd is. If people in Portland don't know who he is, they will."
The rest of the card should be announced in the next two weeks, he says, and "will have a Portland flavor to it, obviously local talent," Goossen says.
Top Rank, Mayweather's former promoter, is trying to block the Portland fight. "We feel very comfortable with moving forward," Goossen says. "We'll let Top Rank do what they want to do."
