Dan Goossen Q ‘n’ A–Promoter Talks Ward-Froch, Arreola-Wladimir

The battle lines for the long awaited final fight in the Super Six Tournament are set. October 29^th is the date, Andre Ward vs. Carl Froch, at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Ward’s promoter Dan Goossen spoke with TSS about choosing the venue and why he thinks a victory will catapult Andre Ward into superstardom. The leader of GoossenTutor Promotions also broke down the hype surrounding the possible heavyweight clash between Wladimir Klitschko and Chris Arreola

Ray Markarian: Why Atlantic City for Ward vs. Froch?

D. Goossen: Las Vegas was not available that particular weekend. We looked at Los Angeles, New York, and Las Vegas. We wanted to get the fight in before the end of the year. Atlantic City has always been a major fight town. A few years after Tyson and Gatti it slowed down. But many of our current great champions have fought there, Floyd Mayweather and Bernard Hopkins included. Atlantic City has always been host to many major, major events. It is a great market, great fans, and it allows Andre to introduce himself to the East Coast fans. And as you know, once you sit up close and personal with Andre, you just want to follow his career. He likes to fight. He likes to entertain. And he is quite charismatic outside of the ring.

RM: What can you tell me about the importance of this fight?

DG: Well, you have a great event. This fight has all the ingredients of what you want. It is England against America; this is a fight between a talker and a man that likes to do his talking in the ring. It has all the elements of what the sport epitomizes, two real fighters getting ready for battle.

RM: Did Carl Froch really not want to fight in California?

DG: California was at the bottom of the sites we were looking at. We wanted it to be in a big venue.

RM: Now that the Super Six Tournament is finally coming to an end, what are your thoughts about tournament?  Do you feel like it has been successful?

DG: It has been a long hard road. But overall the Super Six Tournament has shown value, one big fight after another for all the participants. And that is what our sport needs. And that is what our fans want. I love the tournament concept. To finally be here at the Super Six Final is an exclamation point of what was good about the original concept about the Super Six. We have two of the best 168 pounders in the world fighting each other with both of them coming off four incredibly tough fights to get there.

RM: So, you guys are not looking further ahead? There has been no talk about Andre fighting Lucian Bute or moving up in weight in the near future?

DG: The talk the last two years has been purely about the Super Six final.

RM: What do you think a victory against Carl Froch will do for Andre Ward’s career?

DG: We have been on a path of demonstrating his greatness and I think this is just another step towards that. He has a formidable challenge in the WBC champion in Froch. But I believe in what Andre has done throughout his amateur and professional career. He will be the last man standing and that will catapult him to the next level.

RM: Now, changing gears just a little… In recent weeks, Wladimir Klitschko has called out your fighter Chris Arreola. How do you feel about that?

DG: Obviously Wladimir knows that Chris has positioned himself to be one of the top heavyweight contenders today. It really is not something that I find surprising because it is a big fight out here in the United States. And as we know, Wladimir does not have too many of those on his menu. So as I said before Ray, it is a fight that we are very interested in but you know, it has got to make sense. We are looking at Chris Arreola’s career, not Wladimir Klitschko’s.  And we believe that Chris is going to be heavyweight champion with or without Wladimir Klitschko or Vitali Klitschko for that matter. We are certainly open for any challenge with any heavyweight including the Klitschkos. Chris will fight them all. We are concentrating on Chris Arreola. He is doing what he is supposed to be doing, and because of that attention to himself, and preparation, we are doing the same thing in his promotional endeavors.

RM: So it is all about Chris right now. It is about making him the best fighter that he could be. It is not about just throwing him in there with someone just because that particular person wants to fight him.

DG: Correct. We have no problem fighting any of the heavyweights. But we are not going to do it without having some sensibility to it. We are not going to put Chris in a situation where it is not in his best interest.

RM: So what would be sensible for Chris to fight a Klitschko?

DG: Well we are going to keep him busy. And what would be sensible is anything that makes business sense.

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