Schaefer was given assurances that for this go-around Marlon B. Wright( or is it, Wrong?) would not be the third man in the ring. But beyond that, there is no other place that this fight should be located other than this region. There aren’t many ticket sellers in boxing, but Bute, is certainly one of them. When he fights at the Bell Centre( his usual haunts) you can be guaranteed a crowd of at least 15,000 every time out. The Pepsi Coliseum is completely sold-out for this weekend’s bout.
"The Canadian public, the Canadian sports fans are really hungry for great fights. When I saw that HBO has not been in Canada since 1977, I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it and I think it’s a combination of the great match-up, the great draw both guys are and the fact that HBO for the first time in 32 years is going back to Canada," said Schaefer."So it’s a no-brainer, it’s our immediate neighbor to the north and I would love to do more fights there."
Bute is promoted by Interbox, one of two major promoters in that area. In explaining Bute’s success and the rabid interest of the locals, Jean Bedard, CEO of Interbox, says,"I think we have great champions, five, ten years ago we began with Eric Lucas, who was very popular in Quebec and then Lucian Bute came in, he was a young kid from Romania, he started to learn French. And there’s two good companies here in Quebec that are producing shows. So I think we have a good market, people are very interested in what we’re doing and now, to have a world championship here in Quebec City, which is two hours north of Montreal and bringing HBO, gets people excited here."
There’s an old saying: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So why was Bute moved from the Bell Center, where he has become quite the staple? Easy, he had to make room for another fixture of that venue.
"What happened is when we made the deal with Golden Boy, they had a date which was available , November 28Th, and during winter, hockey is very popular here. The Bell Centre is the home of the Montreal Canadiens. Every Saturday night they play at the Bell Centre. So we have this other venue which for people outside of Montreal is very easy for them to come into town. It’s a very nice town, it’s probably the nicest town in Canada and people are very excited about coming to Quebec City," said Bedard, who mentions that the National Football Championship is also taking place in this city that same afternoon." So it’s a very big weekend here for boxing and also football fans."
In Canada, nothing is bigger than hockey- or the Canadiens, the Yankees of the ’Great White North’- but Bute is no small potatoes. Every time he performs, about 14-15,000 fans pack the arena."That’s the average," said Bedard,"we went to 17,000 last year with Andrade and we’re a full house here in Quebec City. We’ll draw 16,500 people, all the tickets are sold. Lucian, is very popular I would say."
But what’s interesting about this market is that even fights that don’t involve Bute have found success. Such as the April showdown between Tim Bradley and Kendall Holt for their jr. welterweight belts which took place at the Bell Centre.
Gary Shaw, who promotes Bradley recalled,"I think they had around 10,000 for that fight." Which is interesting given that Holt is from New Jersey and Bradley from Southern California. Yet two African-American fighters with no ties to this region actually brought in a pretty good number of patrons through the turnstiles. When asked if this match-up would’ve done this well anywhere in the States, Shaw admitted,"No, not a chance."
The reason this fight took place up north is very simple- the venue yearned for it.
"They called us and said that they wanted to do the fight," explained Shaw, who will be in Quebec City this weekend as his fighter, Ali Funeka faces Joan Guzman, on the opening bout of the ’BAD’ broadcast."They actually called Todd duBoef from Top Rank, originally, and they wanted to do a fight. They were hungry for a championship fight and we did it. They had (Adrian)Diaconu on that card so it made for a good card."
Shaw happens to represent light heavyweight titlist, Chad Dawson, and he has no problems crossing the border for his next fight.
"For sure," he stated,"I’d like to be in it. I would definitely consider doing Chad Dawson next fight, there, against Jean Pascal. I think it’s a great market. I wish we had markets like that here in the United States that you could really penetrate."
So why aren’t there? After all, there is a much deeper boxing history in America than there is in Canada and many more marquee boxers.
"I wish I knew the answer to that," said Shaw."I think about that all the time- why can’t we get 15,000 people between New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts to support Dawson, who’s undefeated? In other words, I don’t know what it takes, even New York city doesn’t come up and support a fighter, unless it’s really ethnic. The John Duddy people, that were with him, the McLoughlin’s, did a terrific job. But it’s very, very difficult to get a market and really penetrate it."
New York, has also supported the likes of Felix Trinidad and Miguel Cotto, more recently, with great fervor, with their strong Puerto Rican constituency. But Shaw thinks that in this instance, familiarity, breeds anything but contempt.
"I think one of the things we really need to do is that the fighter has to live there and be there all the time, be a part of it and I really believe these Canadian fighters, or fighters like Diaconu or Leonard Dorin, that used to be there, Canada, now becomes their home. I believe that they’re really involved in the local scene. We don’t have that here."
Shaw might be onto something here because Bute, is not a native of Quebec. Bedard mentions that,"People here speak French, we’re in the French part of Canada and this guy five years ago didn’t say a word in French and he started to speak French and people appreciate his involvement in the community." Also, Andrade has become a popular figure, having spent much of his time training in the country and taking on Otis Grant, a popular ex-middleweight titlist from Canada, as his trainer. In effect, the Bute-Andrade rivalry is one between two outsiders who have become locals.
Another key to Interbox’s success is that they understand their market and they don’t dilute their product.
"We’ve done in the past five years, I would say four shows a year. It’s always big shows that we produce,"said Bedard."I think we bring a very special atmosphere, we have a spectacular walk in the ring, we have music between rounds. So people are getting excited and I think we build our fans and our crowd one at a time. Now, we have the dividends."
When asked about the possibility of expanding their programs, Bedard explained,"We’re a limited market and people expect big events. For us, it’s could be difficult to do more than four big shows a year and it’s a lot of work to do. We have to work three months before, because our organization is not only full-time boxing. Our main business is more in the restaurants business, then boxing. Boxing is maybe 10-percent of our activities. So it’s a lot of work to organize a boxing event. We’re not a company that’s 100-percent dedicated to boxing. So to us, it’s a good thing to do three or four big shows a year. I think with this we cover the market."
Bute-Andrade continues a trend in the boxing business of putting fights in markets where they belong.
"Oh, absolutely," said Schaefer, who gives some credit to a certain boxing scribe," and I have to say, you raised it a couple of years ago, you were a very strong advocate of bringing the fights where they belong- you’re right. We really made a concerted effort this year, in particular, to take the fights where they belong and I think you’ve seen that and the success speaks for itself."
( Well, geez, thanks Richard, I’m just doing my job, here.)
But make no doubt about it, Quebec, is one of the best boxing markets in the world.
"The Canadiens have done a great job of putting on exciting fights, but also adding some showmanship to it and the fans are really behind their fighters," said Shaw." They remind me of the Hispanic fans, the Mexicans, that really back their fighters. These Canadian people really back their fighters and not necessarily that they have to be from Canada, but the fact that they’re living there.
"The market is great and the crowds are great and they are a very loud crowd."
PASCAL-DIACONU II
The rematch between Jean Pascal and Adrian Diaconu takes place on December 12Th at the Bell Centre. The show will be co-promoted by Interbox and GYM, which is run by Yvon Michel.
When asked how many fans they expected to draw, Bedard was cautiously optimistic," Well, we have to work. Y’know, the economy is a little bit tougher but I think we can reach 10,000, definitely."
VAZQUEZ-MARQUEZ SNAG
So when will we see the long-awaited fourth installment of Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez?
" Showtime couldn’t clear the date of February 27Th, so we’re going to see now," said Schaefer, who represents Vazquez." The next available date at the Staples Center is May 22ND, so I talked to Gary Shaw, Gary’s supposed to reach out to Ken Hershman( of Showtime), to see what other dates they can clear to give us, to see where we can do the fight because we’d really like to do it from Los Angeles and Gary agrees with us."
Schaefer added,"One idea I had, was maybe Houston, Texas, but y’know, I really believe, the conversation we had just a few minutes ago, putting fights where they belong- Vazquez-Marquez belongs in Los Angeles."
Atta boy, Rich.
LEFTOVER FLURRIES
Last weekend on TV Azteca, I saw some pretty good prospects from Yucatan in featherweight Ramon Mass, lightweight Antonio Castro and jr. lightweight, Alonso Lopez, who is trained by Nacho Beristain and is a Juan Manuel Marquez clone....It’s the last full college football weekend of the year. Where did all the time go!?!? Saturday will be spent in my Snuggie, with a case of beer next to my side, watching college gridiron action, boxing( on both Showtime and HBO) and the Lakers....OK, something is up with this whole Tiger Woods saga and it goes beyond him being just a ’Camblin-Asian’ driver. Think about it, the new-found affair, the erratic driving in the early morning hours, this has an R Kelly,’ Trapped in the Closet’ feel to it. I need to know more, because I’ve never been this interested in golf or a golfer ever in my life. But it’s funny, I always though it was his putting that let him down, not his driving.( Yeah, I said it, I couldn’t resist).....I’ll say it now, give Colt McCoy the Heisman Trophy. But this has been the weakest year for this award since Gino Toretta in 1992....This weeks edition of ’
the Main Event’ features Bert Randolph Sugar and Andre Ward.....Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at
k9kim@yahoo.com....
Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.....
