{"id":8012,"date":"2011-02-24T18:54:24","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T23:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=8012"},"modified":"2011-02-24T18:54:24","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T23:54:24","slug":"sergio-martinez-breaking-news-surprise-guest-to-appear-on-fight-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=8012","title":{"rendered":"Sergio Martinez Breaking News: Surprise Guest to Appear on Fight Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIrish\u201d Micky Ward, more popular now than ever after the success of the Oscar-nominated movie about his life, The Fighter, has been invited by promoter Lou DiBella to be a special guest March 12 for the \u201cDiamond Elite\u201d event at the MGM Grand Arena at Foxwoods in Mashantucket, Connecticut. <\/p>\n

World Boxing Council (\u201cWBC\u201d) Emeritus and The Ring Magazine middleweight champion, 2010 Fighter of the Year Sergio \u201cMaravilla\u201d Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KOs), takes on World Boxing Organization (\u201cWBO\u201d) junior middleweight champion, Sergiy \u201cRazor\u201d Dzinziruk (37-0, 23 KOs), in the 12-round main event for the vacant World Boxing Council Diamond middleweight title.<\/p>\n

The chief supporting fight is \u201cCeltic War,\u201d pitting exciting middleweights Andy Lee (24-1, 18 KOs) of Ireland and Scotland\u2019s Craig McEwan (19-0, 10 KOs), in a 10-round bout of ethnic rivalry with potential world title shot implications for the winner.<\/p>\n

The Martinez vs. Dzinziruk and Lee vs. McEwan fights will be broadcast on HBO\u2019s World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:30 pm ET \/ 7:30 pm PT.<\/p>\n

Ward has many direct ties to the March 12 event. Here are the seven degrees of Micky Ward, in association with the \u201cDiamond Elite\u201d event, with quotes from the consensus 3-time Fight of the Year participant:<\/p>\n

Lou DiBella: The last four fights of Ward\u2019s career (2002-2003), including the famed Gatti-Ward trilogy, were by far his most lucrative with approximately $3-million in purse earnings. By no coincidence, Micky was promoted by DiBella Entertainment for the final four fights of his 18-year pro career. \u201cLou is a good guy and a man of his word. He promised to make me a lot of money and he did. And all we needed was a handshake deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sergio Martinez: The Boxing Writers Association of America (\u201cBWAA\u201d) will hold its annual awards dinner May 6 in Las Vegas. Martinez will receive its 2010 Fighter of the Year, named in honor of the great Sugar Ray Robinson, while Ward receives the 2011 James A. Farley Award for Honesty and Integrity in Boxing. \u201cSergio is a great fighter, one of the best in the world today. He\u2019s also a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n

James \u201cBuddy\u201d McGirt: Ward got to know the former two-time world champion and 2002 Trainer of the Year, Buddy McGirt, up close and personal in 2002-2003 when McGirt trained Gatti for all three fights of their epic trilogy. \u201cBuddy was a great trainer and great fighter himself. I\u2019m still good friends with him today.\u201d McGirt is Dzinziruk\u2019s co-trainer.<\/p>\n

Andy Lee: Besides the obvious \u201cgreen\u201d connection linking their Irish heritage, Ward was the color commentator for the PPV airing of Lee\u2019s most dramatic knock-out on March 16, 2007, against former world champion Carl Daniels in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. \u201cAndy is a good, stand-up boxer who has a lot of talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freddie Roach: Another BWAA recipient in May \u2013 third year in a row and fifth time overall as the Eddie Futch Trainer of the Year \u2013 Freddie Roach, like Ward, is a Massachusetts native. Ward\u2019s first amateur match at the age of seven was against Freddie\u2019s younger brother, Joey. \u201cI\u2019ve known Freddie my whole life. I never fought Freddie because he\u2019s older than me. I never really thought back then that Freddie would become the trainer he is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foxwoods: Although Ward never boxed in MGM Grand Arena at Foxwoods, he did fight four times in different venues at Foxwoods, winning three times against Steve Quinonez, Louis Veader and Mark Fernandez. Micky lost in the Bingo Hall to Antonio Diaz by 10-round decision on HBO. \u201cI have great memories of fighting at Foxwoods. It\u2019s still one of my favorite places for boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

HBO: Micky fought six times on HBO (three times vs. Gatti, Jesse James Leija, Diaz and Shea Neary). \u201cMy experiences on HBO were excellent. HBO was really good for me. Everything was great, from Larry Merchant to Jim Lampley, who were MC\u2019s at my retirement party, to everybody else at HBO.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDiamond Elite: Martinez vs. Dzinziruk\u201d will be presented by DiBella Entertainment in association with Gary Shaw Productions and Banner Promotions. Lee vs. McEwan will be presented by DiBella Entertainment in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Both bouts will be broadcast live on HBO\u2019s World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:30 pm ET \/ 7:30 pm PT.<\/p>\n

Tickets for \u201cDiamond Elite: Martinez vs. Dzinziruk,\u201d are priced at $450, $250, $125, $75, and $50 and on sale through the MGM Grand at Foxwoods box office. Tickets can be purchased online at www.mgmatfoxwoods.com, by calling the MGM Grand at Foxwoods at 1-866-646-0609, or in person at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods box office.<\/p>\n

For more information about DiBella Entertainment, including a list of all upcoming bouts, please visit www.dbe1.com, or follow Lou DiBella on twitter, @loudibella.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIrish\u201d Micky Ward, more popular now than ever after the success of the Oscar-nominated movie about his life, The Fighter, has been invited by promoter Lou DiBella to be a special guest March 12 for the \u201cDiamond Elite\u201d event at the MGM Grand Arena at Foxwoods in Mashantucket, Connecticut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[105,2744,267,2743,477,647,2261,2742],"class_list":["post-8012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing","tag-defense","tag-floyd-mayweather","tag-guest","tag-manny-pacquiao","tag-sergio-martinez","tag-shocker","tag-surprise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}