BOXING
Deon Potgieter
New Jersey-based promoters Main Events will promote the World Boxing Council (WBC) super-middleweight title bout between Eric Lucas and Dingaan “Rose of Soweto” Thobela.
Main Events, which represents the likes of Lennox Lewis, Zab Judah, Fernando Vargas and Michael Moorer, won the purse bid held last week in Mexico.
The Lucas-Thobela bout is earmarked to take place in early November in New Jersey on the under-card of the upcoming welterweight unification bout between WBC kingpin Kosta Tzyu and International Boxing Federation (IBF) champ Judah.
The fact that Main Events one of the top three promotional groups in the world bid for the fight is a compliment to Thobela. It did not vie for the previous bout for the title, which was between Lucas and Glenn Catley.
Thobela, who is a free agent, had received offers from a number of promoters.
Main Events, which was formed by the late Dan Duva in 1978, broke into the big time when it hosted the classic 1981 showdown between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns. It has strong international television ties and could play a vital role in securing Thobela several lucrative bouts should he beat Lucas.
There has been growing interest in the possibility of matching Thobela with the winner of the Felix Trinidad-Bernard Hopkins super-fight. That middleweight unification bout was to have taken place this weekend, but was postponed because the venue, Madison Square Garden, is being used as a rescue centre after the attacks in New York.
IBF super-middleweight world champion Sven Otke has also indicated that he would be interested in a unification bout with Thobela.
“It’s extremely important that I beat Lucas,” says Thobela. “It will afford me the opportunity of fighting the likes of Trinidad and Roy Jones. I’m taking this very seriously and am already in training for the fight.”