Once thought to be staged at The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson HBO Pay Per View fight will now land at The Staples Center in Los Angeles on October 15th accroding to Dan Rafael of espn.com
“It does look like it will be at the Staples Center,” said Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions. “It’s probably 95 percent it will be there. I am just working with them to finalize our deal.”
Talks with The Prudential Center hit a snag after The building insisted that Main Events, which has staged all of the boxing events at the Prudential Center be involved with the fight card by having signage in the building and a spot on the undercard for Kathy Duva’s promotion.
This will be Hopkins second fight at The Staples Center and first since his February, 2005 Middleweight title defense against Howard Eastman.
“We had a great crowd when Bernard did his historic 20th title defense and now he will do his first defense of the historic title he won against (Jean) Pascal,” Schaefer said. “I think Los Angeles boxing fans, Los Angeles sports fans, the celebrities — I think they like these kind of meaningful events. Staples Center is very excited about it.”
The fight will headline an HBO PPV card. Schaefer and Gary Shaw, Dawson’s promoter, have been working on the undercard.
One of the supporting bouts has been agreed to, Schaefer said. Golden Boy fighter Jorge Linares will face Antonio DeMarco, who is promoted by Shaw, for the lightweight title recently vacated by Humberto Soto (DeMarco’s cousin).
“Gary confirmed to me that his side is in and our side is in, so it looks like that will be one of the fights,” Schaefer said.
