The final presser conference for Saturday night’s NBC Sports Fight Night card – “Heavyweights Collide” – was held this afternoon in Newark, NJ. Right here, you can find a collection of quotes, notes and photos from the event, which is headlined by Tomasz Adamek vs. Eddie Chambers, and is co-featured by Bryant Jennings vs. Steve Collins.
Kathy Duva, Main Events CEO – “This is a tremendous fight between two great heavyweights. That is something that we don’t get to see very much lately and something we intend to change. We actually started changing it back in January when we saw a fabulous heavyweight fight on NBCSN, and we saw it again in March.”
“One of the reasons you are seeing such fantastic fights, they don’t just happen, is we have two matchmakers working on each show. Russell Peltz is of course is the matchmaker for the series, everybody knows his reputation and his pedigree. He also has a counterpart in the matchmaking and that is Jolene Mizzone from Main Events. She has come a long way from when she was our receptionist. Talk about a success story! They push each other and they make each other better. Getting to see it from the seat that I have is kind of fun to watch. It’s a tremendous partnership.”
“People keep asking me who do I think will win and I honestly don’t know. I think that’s what makes a fight tremendous. We can argue all night. If you look on the websites you will see people going back and forth about who they think is going to win. You’re going to have to watch it to find out. That what makes it a great event.”
Gary Quinn, NBC Sports Groups Senior Director, Programming and Acquisitions- “We are very excited for Saturday night. When Kathy, Russell and all of us got together before the start of the year to come up with the Fight Night franchise, our goal was to put evenly matched fights on and that each show would build on the fact that the boxing fan would know that they were going to get a great show every time they tuned in. Since January, that has happened in each and every fight. We started out with four in our original schedule, now we are up to six. I think you saw a couple Fridays ago, a great show, great atmosphere at the Sands with the Rosado fight and that was an additional show we were able to add. We are going to be opportunistic as we go forward. We are very excited to give the great fighters and athletes up here a national platform.”
“It was great to see Eddie and his trainer, his brother and friend last night on the Fight Night 36 show. It has quickly become a very valuable property to NBC Sports Network.”
“You’re going to see us cultivate and grow with Kathy and with Russell. We are working on an announcement that’s probably going to be very, very pleasing to the boxing fan very soon. Potentially adding a seventh date this year and working on a two year deal for ’13 and ’14. We’ll work out the details of it and announce it very soon.”
“We’re very excited about being able to expose the heavyweight division. We think Saturday night is an unbelievable card.”
Aaron Davis, NJ Boxing Commissioner – “This is great for the sport. Saturday night we are going to have some of our best judges and some of our best referees. We try to set a precedent here in NJ. If our fighters are going to give their life, and they’re going to give their hard work and determination, our officials must do the same. I hope that precedent will be seen and respected , because your career means a lot. You guys are the next legends in the sport.”
Steve Collins – “Thanks for the opportunity. It’s a big step up fighting on NBC. It’s definitely going to be a great fight with Bryant Jennings. I know I’m ready, he (Jennings) looks ready. Hopefully come Saturday you guys will get what you want.”
Bryant Jennings – “I’m well known for running my trap, and pretty much making everyone laugh with my wonderful sense of humor, but today I am just going to showcase some seriousness. This is my 14th fight, with every fight it gets tougher and tougher. Between the opponents, the pressure, my composure and my completeness I am challenged with every fight. Everybody knows I come to fight. I come to win – that’s my goal. I don’t have any other expectations for these fights. A “W” is just pretty much my goal. I hope you enjoy my fight with Steve Collins and I hope you see the future in both of us. ”
Ziggy Rozalski, Ziggy Promotions, co-Promoter – “All the guys up here are nice polite gentlemen…then they get in the ring! This is going to be a great fight. I feel sorry for both fighters because this is going to be a war. The guy that wins is going to go forward and the guy that loses is probably going to have get himself a fishing pole and go fishing. ”
Eddie Chambers – “If you had the chance to see Fight Night 36 last night you’ll see I’m working extremely hard. Me and my team came together and decided that we really need to go up to Detroit, one of the tougher boxing areas in the country. We actually went to the legendary Kronk gym, where it’s like 150 degrees every day, like training in a sauna literally. But I think that’s the kind of thing we needed to do, we need to prepare that way because I am pretty sure Tomasz is going to bring a lot of heat inside the ring. I think that all the work we did was the perfect setting for what we are going to see in the main event on Saturday night.. It’s going to be a fun night. I think Tomasz has worked very hard, I know I have, you’ve seen it.”
“My first thought was that I should not fight Adamek for my first fight back after 14 months off, but then I talked with my friends and trainers and we decided that this would be a good move for me. Show everyone right away that I am back and that I mean business.”
Tomasz Adamek – “I sparred close to 100 rounds in training camp which is a lot of rounds for me. I want to show Eddie some of the stuff I was working on for the last 3 weeks of our training camp. Eddie is saying how fast and untouchable he will be. I will be just as fast as him.”
“I want to fight another two to three years and it’s easier to stay healthy when you are winning. I like the fact that my fights are being shown by both us (NBC Sports Network) and Polish TV. This proves alot of people still want to watch me and there is no reason to think about ending my career.”
“Everybody is waiting for Saturday. I am ready 100%. We had a good camp. I will give a good show Saturday night. I know that Eddie is a very good fighter. He’s lost only 2 fights, like me, and this is why he took the risk fighting me, but it was a mistake.”
