Boxing

Boxers aim for heavier ticket sales

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published June 17, 2006

MEMPHIS - Winky Wright weighed in with his pants and shoes on. Jermain Taylor did the same, with his Blackberry clipped to his waist.

For show, they took their shirts off.

Truth was, the official weigh-in at 5 p.m. CST at the Pepsi Pavilion in Handy Park was really more of a staged production, as Wright and Taylor actually weighed in at 1 p.m. at FedEx Forum.

Regardless, hundreds of fans packed the pavilion to watch the middleweights hit their mark: Wright weighed 159.2 pounds, Taylor is right at the limit of 160.

If the "weigh-in" was any indication, tonight's crowd might not be as pro-Taylor as expected. While it was on the Taylor side, tickets sales are lagging, and Wright has said he's bringing half of St. Petersburg with him.

The favorite in tonight's fight is undetermined.

In an informal survey by USA Today of 14 writers covering the fight, eight pick Wright while six are taking Taylor. With the exception of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writer Chris Givens, who is picking Taylor by an 11th-round TKO, everyone sees the fight going the distance.

According to LasVegasInsider.com, Wright opened as a -130 favorite (meaning you need to bet $130 to win $100) but dropped to -105.

Taylor opened at+

Sportsbook.com has both fighters even at -115.

Willie Lee, who now lives in St. Petersburg after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his Gulfport, Miss., home, will fight junior middleweight contender Sechew Powell (19-0, 11 KOs).

Lee (14-4, 10 KOs) is working with Tampa trainer Pete Fernandez. He lost his first fight in Tampa in January and is looking to bounce back.

Winter Haven's undefeated Andre Berto, a regular at the St. Pete Boxing Club in his amateur days, will fight Sammy Sparkman (18-14-1, eight KOs) in a welterweight tilt. Berto is 12-0 with 10 KOs.

There are nine fights on the undercard, but none will be televised. The replay of last week's Bernard Hopkins- Antonio Tarver fight will air at 9:30 p.m., followed by Taylor and Wright.

According to HBO, last week's Tarver-Hopkins fight on pay-per-view did 330,000 buys, generating $16.5-million of revenue.

Mark Taffet, HBO's senior vice president of sports operation and pay-per-view, said the network was expecting between 300,000 and 350,000 buys.

Speaking of Hopkins, fresh off this past Saturday's dominant victory, he'll be in Memphis today pulling for Taylor.

Immediately after dismantling Tampa's Tarver, he went over to the side of the ring where the HBO announcing team - including Emanuel Steward - was sitting and revealed his favorite for tonight's middleweight showdown.

"Hopkins leaned over the ropes and got Emanuel to take his headset off and said something to the effect of, "I'm coming to Memphis, and I want you and Jermain to uphold the honor of the middleweight division,' " announcer Jim Lampley said. "I'm coming down there to help root him to victory."'

Hopkins still insists he beat Taylor twice, despite coming up short on the judges scorecards in hotly disputed decisions.

So don't mistake Hopkins' support as newfound love for his former adversary, Lampley said.

"Translation: Bernard is going to come to Memphis and try and steal some of Jermain's thunder," he said.

[Last modified June 21, 2006, 09:31:02]