Open roof planned for Liakhovich-Briggs

30/10/2006

Open roof planned for Liakhovich-Briggs

Press Release: It will be suntan lotion in the afternoon and stars at night with the retractable roof open at Chase Field on Saturday when Don King presents the first heavyweight championship bout ever held in Arizona.  Sergei Liakhovich (23-1, 14 KOs), originally from Belarus and now a seven-year resident of Scottsdale, will defend his WBO crown for the first time against Brooklyn, N.Y., native Shannon Briggs (47-4-1, 41 KOs). King wanted the fans to be as close to the action as possible, so he only put 20,012 of the 49,800 available seats on sale—the ones closest to the infield, up and around home plate—with the ring placed over the pitcher’s mound. Ringside seats will be placed on the grass around the ring.  Should there be any threat of rain showers, the roof can easily be closed. “It was important to me that the people of Phoenix have the best seats possible to witness the first world heavyweight championship decided on Arizona soil,” King said with his usual exuberance.  King’s Vice President Bob Goodman said it brought back a lot of memories for him when he visited Chase Field. “We were out at the pitcher’s mound where the ring will be set up on Saturday and I got goose bumps,” Goodman said.  “I was there for the last world heavyweight championship staged at a Major League Baseball park back in 1976 when Muhammad Ali met Ken Norton for the third and final time at New York’s Yankee Stadium.  The only difference is the site lines and weather will be better here in Phoenix.” Goodman also made sure the ring was set up properly for King when he staged another history-making outdoor event, 1974’s epic Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa, Zaire, where Ali stunned “Big George” Foreman and the world by scoring an eighth-round knockout.