17.06.05 – By Billy Borst: The fight of the summer finally has a set date, and tickets are going to fly off the shelves. Don King Productions has announced that tickets will go on sale this Tuesday to a fight which will rock The United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The fight is scheduled for August 13th, and will include some of the hottest fighters around today. Hasim “The Rock” Rahman (40-5-1, 33 KOs) will be the highlight of the night as he takes on Monte “Two Gunz” Barrett (31-3-0, 17 KOs)..
Rahman is entering this fight coming off a vicious 4th round TKO that he delivered to Kali Meehan back in November. Barrett will also meet Rahman after leaving Owen Beck with a 9th round TKO. The fight will be for the WBC Heavyweight Championship. Rahman was rumored to have been negotiating a fight with Vitali Klitschko, but the injured Vitali declined the fight, because he needed surgery.)
Fighting on the under card for Rahman and Barrett will be another heavyweight who is trying to grasp what he was in his prime, and is fighting for mostly recognition and respect. Thirty seven year old Andrew “The Powerful Pole” Golota (38-6-1, 31 KOs) will be fighting another Polish warrior, Przemyslaw Saleta (42-6-0, 23 KOs). Don King has dubbed this upcoming fight, “The Polish Fight of The Century”. Golota has had a cold streak, he received a draw against Chris Byrd, and suffered loses to John Ruiz, and recently Lamon Brewster. Golota’s loss to John Ruiz was a highly disputed unamimous descion, that left many Polish fans feeling that their fighter had been robbed. Saleta scored a Unanimous Descion over Roman Suchoterin back in April, and is hoping to get to the top fast by beating a slipping Golota.
Ricardo “El Matador” Mayorga (27-5-1, 23 KOs) will also be fighting on August 13th against Michele Piccirillo (44-2-0, 28 KOs) for the WBC Light Middleweight Title. Mayorga bravely fought Felix Trinidad, but ended up losing by TKO in round 8. Mayorga retired after the fight, only to come back and set up a fight with Don King for this August. Piccirillo has won 7
of his 8 previous fights, suffering a loss to Cory Spinks. He is heating up, and hoping to be able to beat Mayorga, who is a known knockout artist.
There will also be two other heavyweight fights, and one other middleweight attraction for the fight. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, June 14th and the fight will be Saturday August 13th, 2005. The Byrds Nest Boxing staff will cover this fight, and most likely have a next day article for “The Fight of the Summer.”