Parker vs. Ruiz: Duco Looking For Goverment Funding For Event
The government may help fund Joseph Parker's world boxing title challenge to be held in Auckland in December.
Parker's promoter Dean Lonergan has asked the government to help pay the bill for hosting the event.
Lonergan is reported as saying the bout may need seven-figure contributions from sponsors and the government if the fight for the WBO world heavyweight title, against Andy Ruiz on December 10, was to go ahead.
Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said the government received an application for funding yesterday.
He said the application was being assessed and the government did not have a view on it yet.
"There's a number of criteria for the fund and one of them would be 'is this an event that would occur anyway," he said.
"But there's a number of other criteria around - the leverage opportunities for New Zealand, things like television coverage, all those sorts of things."
Steven Joyce said it was too early to say how much money the government might put in, but it would be the minimum required to secure the event.
IN OTHER NEWS: LINCOLN, R.I. – With one vicious right hand to the chin, Khiary Gray erased a summer’s worth of second guesses and “what ifs” and reclaimed his throne atop New England’s crowded junior middleweight division.
“I’m back!” Gray (14-1, 11 KOs) exclaimed Friday following his sensational seventh-round knockout win over Chicago’s Chris Chatman at Twin River Casino to retain his Universal Boxing Federation (UBF) International and Northeast Junior Middleweight Titles.
Who could argue?
Coming off a loss in July in his national television debut on Showtime, Gray silenced the critics and got back into the win column in scintillating fashion, stopping Chatman (14-6-1) dead in his tracks with a looping right hand to the chin, knocking Chatman cold at 1:17 of the seventh round of a scheduled eight-round fight.
It was quite possibly the knockout of the year at Twin River in what was the final event of CES Boxing’s 2016 Twin River Fight Series. It was also Chatman’s eighth appearance at Twin River since 2009, where he amassed a 5-2 record entering Friday.
The two exchanged blows throughout the first six rounds with Gray scoring a quick knockdown toward the end of the fourth to earn the edge on the scorecards, but Chatman, as usual, kept pressing, bullying his way to the inside against the taller Gray to slow the pace of the fight.
Toward the end of the seventh, Chatman pushed the pace, backed Gray against the ropes and unloaded a lightning-fast flurry of rights and lefts. Gray calmly sidestepped and caught Chatman with a right hand that sent the veteran crashing to the canvas. Chatman beat the count, but stumbled and fell back to his knees, prompting Joey Lupino to stop the fight.
Gray has now won 11 of his 14 fights by knockout. Friday was his first fight back in the ring since the aforementioned loss to Ian Green in July in which he got stopped in the second round.
