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Barclays Center leading candidate to host Thurman-Garcia

Photo by: Naoki Fukuda
Fighters Network
17
Nov

Showtime boxing chief Stephen Espinoza reiterated his belief that Barclays Center remains the leading candidate to host Keith Thurman’s welterweight unification fight with Danny Garcia for the WBC and WBA titles on March 4. And he expects a determination to be made within the next week on whether the fight will air on CBS or Showtime.

“That make a lot of sense,” Espinoza told RingTV.com on Wednesday of Barclays Center hosting the fight before a press conference for Badou Jack-James DeGale Jan. 14, also at Barclays Center. “Danny and Keith have fought here before more than once and it’s a leading contender. Whenever there’s a fight that big, Vegas always comes into the equation but I would say probably that Barclays Center is certainly the leading candidate at this point.”

Espinoza said the final say of where it takes place will come down to the fight’s organizers. Both Garcia and Thurman are advised by Al Haymon, who presumably will make the call. “It’s up to the promoter, and I’m sort of an observer in it,” Espinoza said. “But I’m happy if that fight takes place in Iceland,” he joked. “As long as we get it in early March, it can’t come soon enough.”

It’s also not been decided if the fight will air on CBS or Showtime, Espinoza said. “We’re working through that,” he said. “In looking at our programing commitments and talking to CBS about their programming commitments, I do expect probably within the next week or so we’ll have a determination on which way it’s going to go.”



Garcia stopped Samuel Vargas in the seventh round on Saturday to secure the big-money fight with Thurman, who hasn’t fought since he won a decision against Shawn Porter on June 25, also at Barclays Center. Left unsaid is the health insurance issue that needs to be resolved before any fight can take place in New York. Currently, no insurance policy exists for new regulations that were adopted in the MMA bill for combat sports in the state.

 

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