Tweet
by David P. Greisman - You can – and should – go home again. And again. And again.
Fernando Guerrero will go home for the fourth time Saturday, and for good reason: He is a big draw in a small city, selling thousands and thousands of tickets in an area of Maryland known more for industrial chicken farms than for boxing.
Salisbury is two-and-a-half hours from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., a drive across the Chesapeake Bay and into the Eastern Shore. Once the bridge ends and land begins, the cities, dense suburbs and six-lane interstate highways are left behind. It is just trees, agriculture and bucolic living for most of the rest of U.S. Route 50 on the way to Salisbury, situated no more than 45 minutes from Ocean City and the waves of the Atlantic.
The four surrounding Maryland counties contain less than 4 percent of the state’s population. Salisbury is home to about 24,000 people.
Guerrero, a middleweight- and super-middleweight prospect with just 15 fights to his name, averages more than 5,000 fans per show.
Contrast that with Chad Dawson and Antonio Tarver, two top light heavyweights who faced each other twice in the hedonistic oasis of Las Vegas. Their first bout had paid attendance of 911 Their rematch had about 2,100 people, but only 1,426 tickets were sold. Another 1,309 tickets went unsold. The live gate was a paltry $170,820.
No wonder Dawson’s next bout will be in Hartford, Conn. Dawson, once a New England staple as a young prospect, has fought in his home state in just one of his nine bouts since 2006. [details]
Fernando Guerrero will go home for the fourth time Saturday, and for good reason: He is a big draw in a small city, selling thousands and thousands of tickets in an area of Maryland known more for industrial chicken farms than for boxing.
Salisbury is two-and-a-half hours from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., a drive across the Chesapeake Bay and into the Eastern Shore. Once the bridge ends and land begins, the cities, dense suburbs and six-lane interstate highways are left behind. It is just trees, agriculture and bucolic living for most of the rest of U.S. Route 50 on the way to Salisbury, situated no more than 45 minutes from Ocean City and the waves of the Atlantic.
The four surrounding Maryland counties contain less than 4 percent of the state’s population. Salisbury is home to about 24,000 people.
Guerrero, a middleweight- and super-middleweight prospect with just 15 fights to his name, averages more than 5,000 fans per show.
Contrast that with Chad Dawson and Antonio Tarver, two top light heavyweights who faced each other twice in the hedonistic oasis of Las Vegas. Their first bout had paid attendance of 911 Their rematch had about 2,100 people, but only 1,426 tickets were sold. Another 1,309 tickets went unsold. The live gate was a paltry $170,820.
No wonder Dawson’s next bout will be in Hartford, Conn. Dawson, once a New England staple as a young prospect, has fought in his home state in just one of his nine bouts since 2006. [details]
Comment