Showtime Bantamweight Tourney to be Held in Tacoma, Wash.
NEW YORK (Nov. 18, 2010)—SHOWTIME Sports officially announced today that The Bantamweight Tournament: Winner Takes All—the two-stage, single-elimination tournament of 118-pounders—will begin with two Semifinal bouts on Saturday, Dec. 11 at Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash. SHOWTIME will televise the fights live at 9 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).
Tickets for this event, starting at $50, will go on sale this Saturday, Nov. 20 at 10 a.m. PT at all Ticketmaster locations, at the Emerald Queen Casino box office and via the websites www.EmeraldQueen.com and www.halquistproductions.com.
The talented and willing field comprises two-division world champion Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan (35-2-1, 27 KOs), unbeaten International Boxing Federation (IBF) 118-pound champion Yonnhy “El Colombiano” Perez (20-0-1, 14 KOs), world-ranked rising star Abner Mares (20-0-1, 13 KOs), former IBF bantamweight champion Joseph King Kong Agbeko (27-2, 22 KOs).
On Dec. 11, Darchinyan of Sydney, Australia by way of Armenia will take on Mares, of Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., by way of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and Perez, of Santa Fe Springs, Calif. by way of Cartagena, Colombia, will defend his IBF bantamweight belt against Agbeko, of Bronx, N.Y. by way of Accra, Ghana.
Each bout is scheduled for 12 rounds. The winners of each Semifinal fight will meet in the ring in the 2011 tournament final with the losing fighters competing in a consolation fight.
The bantamweight tournament is promoted by Gary Shaw Productions, Golden Boy Promotions, Thompson Boxing Promotions, and Don King Productions.
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Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ and FLIX®, as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME 2™, SHOWTIME® SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME®, SHOWTIME BEYOND®, SHOWTIME NEXT®, SHOWTIME WOMEN®, SHOWTIME FAMILY ZONE® and THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ XTRA. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HD™, SHOWTIME 2 HD™, THE MOVIE CHANNEL HD™, SHOWTIME ON DEMAND®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL ON DEMAND™ and FLIX ON DEMAND®. SNI also manages Smithsonian Channel™, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution. All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME PPV®.
