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Boxing will return to Savvis Sept. 30
By Tom Timmermann
Of the Post-Dispatch
Tuesday, Sep. 06 2005
St. Louis boxing fans turned out in force when local fighter Cory Spinks met
Zab Judah in February. How much interest they have when the fighter isn't from
St. Louis remains to be seen.
The local affection for the sweet science will be put to the test Sept. 30,
when veteran Virgil Hill comes out of retirement to face undefeated Russian
Valery Brudov for the vacant WBA world cruiserweight championship in a Don
King-promoted event at Savvis Center.
Also on the card will be a fight between Daniel Santos and Joe Wyatt for
Santos' WBO junior middleweight title and local fighters Devon Alexander and
Danny Williams.
It will be the first fight card at Savvis since the city agreed to waive its
ticket tax for boxing events, and it will be the first of several cards at the
arena in the coming months. On Oct. 21, Savvis will start its Friday night
fights, an occasional series of smaller cards in the building's Concert Club.
More than 22,370 people showed up in February and saw Judah beat Spinks for the
undisputed world welterweight title. Dennis Petrullo, general manager at Savvis
Center, who has worked to bring boxing to the building, knows full well that he
won't get a crowd like that again.
"I'm hoping for 10,000 to 12,000," he said. "We'd prefer to have six weeks
(before the fight to sell tickets), but we did Cory in less than 30 days. When
Don hits town (which will happen with a news conference today), he'll start
turning the town upside down.
"This is a risky business. There's a lot of money involved, and it all happens
real fast. We'd love to have 15,000 to 16,000 and prove we're a boxing town,
even if we don't feature a local like Cory."
Petrullo had been targeting Spinks for the next Savvis fight, but contractual
issues between Spinks and King have kept that from happening. Kevin Cunningham,
Spinks' trainer, said Tuesday that he was looking to have Spinks back in the
ring before the end of the year, he hopes in St. Louis.
Hill, 41, is 49-5 but has lost four of his last 10 fights.
Brudov is 30-0 with 23 knockouts, including one in each of his last 11 fights.
All of his fights, however, have been in either Russia or France.
__________________________________________________ ______________________
I hadn't seen this mentioned yet - I'm just happy to see the city get rid of that ridiculous tax.
By Tom Timmermann
Of the Post-Dispatch
Tuesday, Sep. 06 2005
St. Louis boxing fans turned out in force when local fighter Cory Spinks met
Zab Judah in February. How much interest they have when the fighter isn't from
St. Louis remains to be seen.
The local affection for the sweet science will be put to the test Sept. 30,
when veteran Virgil Hill comes out of retirement to face undefeated Russian
Valery Brudov for the vacant WBA world cruiserweight championship in a Don
King-promoted event at Savvis Center.
Also on the card will be a fight between Daniel Santos and Joe Wyatt for
Santos' WBO junior middleweight title and local fighters Devon Alexander and
Danny Williams.
It will be the first fight card at Savvis since the city agreed to waive its
ticket tax for boxing events, and it will be the first of several cards at the
arena in the coming months. On Oct. 21, Savvis will start its Friday night
fights, an occasional series of smaller cards in the building's Concert Club.
More than 22,370 people showed up in February and saw Judah beat Spinks for the
undisputed world welterweight title. Dennis Petrullo, general manager at Savvis
Center, who has worked to bring boxing to the building, knows full well that he
won't get a crowd like that again.
"I'm hoping for 10,000 to 12,000," he said. "We'd prefer to have six weeks
(before the fight to sell tickets), but we did Cory in less than 30 days. When
Don hits town (which will happen with a news conference today), he'll start
turning the town upside down.
"This is a risky business. There's a lot of money involved, and it all happens
real fast. We'd love to have 15,000 to 16,000 and prove we're a boxing town,
even if we don't feature a local like Cory."
Petrullo had been targeting Spinks for the next Savvis fight, but contractual
issues between Spinks and King have kept that from happening. Kevin Cunningham,
Spinks' trainer, said Tuesday that he was looking to have Spinks back in the
ring before the end of the year, he hopes in St. Louis.
Hill, 41, is 49-5 but has lost four of his last 10 fights.
Brudov is 30-0 with 23 knockouts, including one in each of his last 11 fights.
All of his fights, however, have been in either Russia or France.
__________________________________________________ ______________________
I hadn't seen this mentioned yet - I'm just happy to see the city get rid of that ridiculous tax.
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