Quick Q&A with Artie Pelullo

By G. Leon

09/05/2006

Quick Q&A with Artie Pelullo

GL: What can you tell us about the big fight on Saturday night? "Ricky Hatton is in town, Luis Collazo is in town and the main event is here. We're looking for a big bash and it's going to be a great show. We're hoping to sell-out. I'm expecting between twelve and fourteen thousand people to show up. Collazo is here and he's going to do some Hispanic radio interviews. Ricky Hatton has already had a race named after him and won a bet on the race that was named after him. Everything has been going great with the promotion, there's going to be a lot of media in town this week and everybody that comes out is going to see a great fight."

GL: Will this fight take place for the WBA title? What's the latest there?

Artie Pelullo: "As you know we had very good news on Friday. Judge Chin released Ricky and allowed him to fight for the welterweight title, which cleared the way for the fight with Collazo to happen. There's still one situation that has to be resolved with the German gentleman (Oktay Urkal) and we're working on that as we speak. But we do believe the fight will be for the WBA welterweight title."

GL: Based on what you've seen on Collazo do you think he presents stylisitic problems to Hatton?

AP: The kid is a world champion. He went into Rivera's backyard and beat him to win the title. We're not looking at him as an opponent, we're looking at him as a champion. Anytime you're fighting a guy like that, it's a world class fight. HBO thinks it's a world class fight that's why they bought it."

GL: For world class money.

AP: "Ricky Hatton coming to America is something for them to get excited about. HBO knows this is a good fight. this is a very important fight for Ricky and this is a mega-fight for Collazo. He becomes a star if he wins, but we think Ricky's more than ready for the challenge."

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