The long awaited showdown between undefeated fighter Danny “Swift” Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) and Lamont Peterson (33-2-1, 17 KOs) will finally get down to business as Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series on NBC returns to primetime on Saturday, April 11 at 8:30 p.m. ET from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
It has also been a monumental moment for boxing promoter and CEO of DiBella Entertainment, Lou DiBella, who was born and raised in Brooklyn. In an interview with Jason Costa of HitFirstBoxing, DiBella spoke about his excitement.
“I’m excited man. This is the first time I’ve promoted a big time show in Brooklyn and the first time I’ve promoted at the Barclays Center. They (Premier Boxing Champions) made a mistake the first time. They should have brought a Brooklyn guy at the beginning. They went East LA, and I think they learned their lesson, but now they got the right guy promoting I think,” a sarcastic DiBella said in excitement for the upcoming card.
“They got the right show; this is an awesome show. It’s a great show with Garcia-Peterson, which is a terrific fight, Andy Lee defending against Peter Quillin is a great fight, and the undercard from top to bottom with Danny Jacobs defending his title against a tough guy, with Gabriel Bracero fighting Felix Diaz; that’s unbelievable stuff.
Feliz Diaz, an undefeated Olympic gold medalist from the Bronx, from the Dominican Republic, fighting Gabe Bracero from Sunset Park. Gabe’s fans could literally walk to Barclays Center. That fight is a real local border war, it’s burrow against burrow, Puerto Rican against Dominican, you are going to see a lot of people come out for that fight.”
DiBella also brought up Heather Hardy, the first female fighter to fight under the DiBella Entertainment banner.
“You got the first lady of DB Heather Hardy on the card. She’s always exciting, she sells a lot of tickets.”
DiBella also mentioned Marcus Browne (13-0,10 KOs), who will also be on the undercard. Browne is coming off a 1st round KO of George Blades, who was also knocked out by Chad Dawson in June 2014.
Furthermore, the significance of this card being available on primetime network television is huge for boxing.
“To have PBC and NBC involved, a show that goes on broadcast television in primetime, that’s like Back to the Future man. I’m going to work my rear-end off promoting this event. We have a great card to work with. I think we’re going to bring out a load of people, and I think the boxing fans are going to be the big winner.
The biggest winner is going to be the people that buy tickets to go to the Barclays Center and then around the country, the people that get to see this on NBC. I’m hoping that along with the announcement of Mayweather-Pacquiao, there are a lot of things happening in boxing laid out right now; a lot of excitement.
I think it’s going to return people to the sport. I think we are going to build some new fans. I like boxing heads, and I like the freaks on Twitter,” added DiBella.
The style of DiBella is unexampled in the sport of boxing; he’s that good. He brings the fire and enthusiasm that will bring more die-hard fans and new, querying fans into the spectrum.
“Honestly, we need to reach out to people that are sports fans that used to follow boxing in the glory days. We got to bring those people back to the sport because that’s how the sport is going to have a resurgence. That’s the importance of network TV, that’s the importance of the Barclays Center, the importance of PBC, and that’s why I’m so excited to be doing this.”
When asked about how the Premier Boxing Champions series package came about, DiBella explicated the importance of business and the importance of having long-term relationships in business.
“Al (Haymon) and I have been doing business for 15 years, so it’s not like it’s a surprising collaboration. Continuing to work with him is sort of a continuation of what we’ve always done.”
Andy Lee has a tough fight on his hands on 11 April, as he defends his WBO Middleweight title against Quillin, who awkwardly vacated the title for no justified reason and now is getting a shot to get the belt back. However, DiBella doesn’t think that Quillin will have a pleasant evening in the squared circle.
“I see Quillin going down. I think it’s a terrific fight. Peter is a very strong guy. I think Andy is really coming into his own now as a champion. I think in his last three or four fights, you’ve seen punching power from Andy. He’s really coming into his own under Adam Booth. He had the years with Emmanuel Steward that made him who he is, but Adam’s done a great job, and he’s got that great equalizer now, that one punch knockout power. I think that Peter has to be very careful. Either way, I can tell you it’s going to be a sensational fight.”