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Promoter plays his card at USF

Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA) | August 25, 2001
By Jay Heater | Times Columnist

San Francisco promoter Peter Howes will bring professional boxing to USF's War Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 28 with a show featuring lightweights Leo Dorin (18-0) and Emanuel Burton (24-18-4).

The co-feature on the ESPN2 card matches light heavyweights Danny Batchelder (17-0) and Anthony Hanshaw (12-0). Both feature bouts are scheduled for 10 rounds.

Howes originally planned the show at the Bill Graham Auditorium but was given considerable support when he checked with USF's athletic administration about hosting a card at its arena.

“USF is very plugged in and supportive of athletics,” Howes said. “It wasn’t a hard sell.”

Dorin is a Romanian fighting out of Montreal while Burton is from Miami. Batchelder's home is Albany, N.Y., while Hanshaw is from Warren, Ohio.

Also on the pro portion of the card will be a women's bout featuring Novato's Susan Howard and a flyweight bout. The show also will include at least three amateur bouts. Mixing pro and amateur bouts on the same card used to be forbidden by the California Athletics Commission, but that changed in the past year.

I looked at combining pro and amateur bouts about a year and a half ago, but I figured I would let it happen one or two times elsewhere to see how it would go,” Howes said. “Now I want to be one of the first to jump on the bandwagon.”

Howes said he plans to include San Francisco amateurs Jimmy Ford (156 pounds), Simon Redmond (156) and Jack Shanas (178) on his card. Tickets to the event are priced from $30 to $100 and are available by calling 415-392-4400 or at tickets.com. Information about the fight card is available at www.fighttribe.com.

AMERICA BLOWUP: Obviously Mat Tinley and Dan Goossen had one nasty argument that led to Goossen's resignation on Thursday. Goossen was America Presents' chief operating officer and president since 1996. Tinley is owner and chief executive of America Presents.

Tinley issued a brief statement. “Dan has been a good friend, but sometimes good friends disagree. This is one of those times.”

America Presents has suffered some flops the past two years. First came David Reid's meltdown as one of the world's best junior middleweights, then heavyweight David Tua fired off duds against Lennox Lewis and Chris Byrd.

SHOBOX: It might be too early to determine if the “Shobox: The New Generation” series on Showtime has been a monetary success, but it certainly has been a critical one. The series features prospects who risk facing tough opponents with the hope of making an positive impression. If not for the series, two fights such as the ones scheduled for Sept. 15 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas wouldn't have happened. On that show, USBA lightweight champ Efren Hinojosa (23-0) will fight San Leandro's Jauquin Gallardo (11-0-1). Gallardo is exactly the kind of fighter most veteran trainers would try to avoid. He has a ton of amateur experience and is very crafty and well-prepared. He has shown a solid chin by getting off the canvas to win fights and is willing to bang. However, Hinojosa will take the risk in an attempt to gain more lucrative fights. The other bout matches lightweights Francisco Bojado (6-0) and Eleazar Contreras (15-1-1). Bojado, a former Mexican Olympian, normally would be facing shot fighters at this point in his career to gain experience. Instead he is facing Contreras, who won a minor title in his previous bout with a knockout of Fernando Mena in Temecula.

PRO SCENE: NABF lightweight champion Juan Lazcano (27-2-1) of Sacramento faces challenger Julio Alvarez (24-7-1) next Saturday on Showtime. Bernard Hopkins' nephew, junior welterweight Demetrius Hopkins of Philadelphia, is 8-0 as a pro. He will be featured on ESPN2 on Sept. 14 on the Omar Sheika-Thomas Tate undercard.