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Showtime Championship Boxing "Terra" Garcia vs. Jose Antonio Rivera Updated Line-up
May 6, 2006 DCU Center Worcester, Massachusetts 9 PM ET/PT
Line-up (not in fight order): WBA Super Welterweight Title Bout (12 Rds) Champion Alejandro "Terra" Garcia (25-1, 23 KOs) vs. Jose Antonio "El Gallo" Rivera (37-4-1, 24 KOs)
IBF Cruiserweight Title Bout (12 Rds) - vacant - change Steve "USS" Cunningham (19-0, 10 KOs) vs. Guillermo "El Felino" Jones (33-3-2, 26 KOs) - Jones replaces O'Neil Bell (26-1-1, 24 KOs) who was stripped of the IBF title
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Showtime Championship Boxing Continues 20th Anniversary Celebration With World Championship Doubleheader
difference between winning and losing. Not so in the sweet science, however, where performance and what one does in the ring counts most.
"Once the bell rings, it is just you and your opponent," said Alejandro "Terra" Garcia (25-1, 23 KOs), who defends his World Boxing Association (WBA) super welterweight belt against local favorite and former world welterweight champion Jose Antonio Rivera (37-4-1, 24 KOs) Saturday, May 6, 2006, on SHOWTIME (9 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast). "Rivera may have a big crowd rooting for him, but I still have my fists. They are the great equalizer.''
In front of what will be a raucous setting at the DCU Center at Worcester, Mass., and millions more watching on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING, Garcia will make the first defense in his second stint as WBA 154-pound champion.
"Having a big crowd of people on hand to support you is great, but what good is it if you give them nothing to cheer about?" Garcia asked.
Garcia and Rivera will square off in the second-half of a world championship doubleheader promoted by Don King Productions. In the opener, the top two cruiserweights in the International Boxing Federation (IBF), Steve "USS" Cunningham (19-0, 10 KOs) and Guillermo "El Felino" Jones (33-3-2, 26 KOs), will collide for the IBF cruiserweight crown. The belt became vacant when O'Neil Bell was stripped for not defending against Cunningham, his mandatory challenger.
Garcia, of Tijuana, Mexico, was reinstated by the WBA as its 154-pound champion when Travis Simms refused to give him a rematch. The only defeat in Garcia's career came when he was dethroned by Simms on a controversial, one-punch fifth-round knockout on Dec. 12, 2003.
Entering the fifth round of the battle of unbeaten super welterweights, Simms led, 39-37, on two of the scorecards and was even on the other. However, with 1:39 to go in the stanza, Simms caught Garcia with a sharp left hook to the jaw. The challenger followed with a stiff right uppercut that nailed Garcia squarely on the chin. The fighters fell into a brief clinch with their arms resting around each other. The referee, who was behind the action, yelled "break" from a distance.
Garcia dropped his hands as he waited for the referee to step in and separate him from Simms.
Simms, however, beat the referee to the punch. As the boxers took a step back, Simms hit Garcia with a picture-perfect left hook flush on the chin. Garcia crashed to the canvas out cold before he slammed on to the floor. With his right glove folded over his face, Garcia never moved as the referee counted him out.
"I got careless," Garcia said. "I know I am supposed to protect myself at all times, but I was only doing what the referee told us to do when he went over the rules before the fight.
"Simms hit me on the break. The ref started to separate us and I stepped back and relaxed. I thought it was not a fair punch. I wanted a rematch, but Simms never gave me one.''
After winning his next fight, Garcia captured the WBA interim 154-pound crown with a ninth-round TKO over Rhoshii Wells on May 21, 2005, in Chicago.
In his last start, Garcia retained the interim belt with a 12-round unanimous decision (118-108 and 117-110 twice) over Luca Messi on Aug. 13, 2005, in Chicago. The bout represented just the second time that the young man (whose favorite band is Pink Floyd) had exited a ring victorious without knocking an opponent to the dark side of the moon.
Shortly after the victory over Messi, the WBA declared Garcia its 154-pound world champion.
Garcia captured the WBA title the first time with a third-round KO over defending champion Santiago Samaniego on March 1, 2003, in Las Vegas. Garcia defeated Wells the first time in his initial defense by scoring a 10th-round TKO on Sept. 20, 2003, at Uncasville, Conn.
Known as "Terra," which is short for "terrain," Garcia got the nickname because he said that he ate dirt all the time when he was a little boy.
It figures to be a down and dirty, exciting slugfest when Garcia defends against Rivera, of Worcester, by way of Philadelphia. Rivera, the WBA No. 3 super welterweight contender, will step up a notch in weight and make his first start since losing his WBA 147-pound crown to late substitute Luis Collazo on a 12-round split decision (115-113 twice and 113-115) April 2, 2005, in Worcester.
"I pushed the whole fight," said Rivera, who came up short in a thrilling, give-and-take contest that featured numerous exciting exchanges. "I do not know how Collazo got the split decision."
After losing in a major upset, Rivera will get a chance to win a second world title in his hometown.
"Garcia is coming to Worcester to defend his title,'' Rivera said. "I have to be ready and prepared to take his belt. I do not think he is any more special than anyone I have fought in the past.''
Rivera claimed the vacant WBA welterweight crown with a 12-round decision (116-111, 116-114 and 114 twice) over previously unbeaten Michel Trabant (38-0 going in) on Sept. 13, 2003, in Berlin, Germany. "I still get goose bumps just thinking what an amazing feeling I had after winning the title."
A class act and true working-class hero outside the ring, Rivera works as a court officer in the Worcester Juvenile Court and volunteers his time at a youth club. He was the Rotary Club's Worcester Citizen of the Year in 2005. "Boxing is what I do but there is more to life than boxing," he said.
Cunningham, of Philadelphia, is ranked No. 1 in the IBF, No. 2 in the WBC and WBO, and No. 4 in the WBA. A talented boxer-puncher, who was an All-Navy Military champion, is trained by the legendary Richie Giachetti. Cunningham is coming off a fifth-round TKO over Lloyd Bryan on Jan. 7, 2006, but his biggest win came when he outpointed former world champion Kelvin Davis across 12 rounds in an IBF eliminator Sept. 3, 2005. Cunningham also owns a victory over Jones. In a good, close fight on April 2, 2005, he recorded a 10-round split decision win by the scores of 97-93, 96-94 and 93-97.
Jones, of Colon, Panama, is 11-1-1 in his last 13 starts. He has won two straight against former cruiserweight titleholders since falling short to Cunningham. In his last start, Jones scored a fourth-round TKO over Wayne Braithwaite on Sept. 3, 2005, in Cleveland on SHOWTIME. On May 21, 2005, Jones registered a fourth-round TKO over Davis in Chicago. Jones twice fought for the WBA junior middleweight title, but has been campaigning as a cruiserweight since 2002. He fought to a controversial 12-round draw against WBO cruiserweight champ Johnny Nelson on Nov. 23, 2002
SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING's Steve Albert and Al Bernstein will call the action from ringside with Jim Gray serving as roving reporter. The producer of the SHOWTIME telecast will be Ray Smaltz with Bob Dunphy directing.
SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING celebrates 20 years of hard-hitting, explosive programming in 2006. In March 1986, SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING was born when "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler defeated John "The Beast" Mugabi in a spectacular and unforgettable 11th-round knockout in Las Vegas. Since that time, the network has aired some of the most historic and significant events in the sport including both Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson bouts.
Always at the forefront of boxing, SHOWTIME has set itself apart by telecasting "great fights, no rights" on the first Saturday of every month. SHOWTIME is the first network to regularly deliver live boxing in High Definition. In addition, SHOWTIME continues to be a pioneer in sports television with a number of interactive features across multiple platforms making SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecasts the most enjoyable, immersive viewing experience for the boxing audience.
- Press Release issued by Showtime with a little editing from us (color, highlights, etc...)
Subject to change
(4/12/06) |
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