Columnist Dean Juipe: Promoter Goossen jumps back into the fray

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2001 | 11:14 a.m.

Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His sports column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

To the layman, the notion of starting a boxing promotional firm is fettered with challenges.

There's a need for investment capital, to say nothing of contracts and TV deals to be negotiated. Oh, and there's also the item of acquiring quality fighters, which can be construed as an ominous task in this era of exclusive, long-term deals.

But Dan Goossen has done this before, and, he said this week, he's ready to do it again.

"It won't be easy but I'm in a very specialized industry," he said. "I'm capable at what I do and I've done it for years and been successful at it."

Having departed from America Presents after a five-year run, Goossen is in the process of forming Ten Goose Sports. He said his new company, which had a precursor in Ten Goose Boxing that operated out of Southern California more than a decade ago before Goossen went to Top Rank and then America Presents, will be up and operational shortly.

"We'll have our first card by the end of October or early November," Goossen said.

At the top of his to-do list is lining up financial support and finding fighters, although neither assignment intimidates him.

"I'm putting the financial part together right now," Goossen said. "And I've already had about 100 contacts from fighters. When I was at America Presents, I probably turned down 20 to 50 fighters a week who had good credentials, so finding fighters won't be a problem.

"Fighters know me, and my job is to know who the fighters are. There are talented people out there looking for a break and I'm in a position to give them that break.

"Actually, the talent pool out there is tremendous. And for the fighters I may not know, there are certain people who know every fighter in the world and I can reach them and have them give me a rundown."

Ten Goose will run out of a Las Vegas office that Goossen has yet to open.

"I'm ecstatic about it," he said. "I'm in full and complete control."

He said his departure from America Presents "had been brewing for about a year" and that given what he sees as the "daunting task" of rebuilding America Presents' stable of fighters, he would prefer to start from scratch with his own crew.

"If I'm going to make the sacrifices that come with the territory of rebuilding America Presents, I'd much prefer to rebuild with my own company," he said. "Instead of doing things for America Presents, I'm doing them for Ten Goose Sports. It's the same workload, but this way I'm doing it for me and my family, which makes it worthwhile because I'm sure they'll appreciate it."

Goossen doesn't second-guess his association with America Presents, although he wonders what may have been had two of its top fighters won their most important bouts.

"If (David) Reid beats (Felix) Trinidad and if (David) Tua beats (Lennox) Lewis, where does the company go?" he said, rhetorically. "We got very, very close to being very, very successful.

"But I can't fight for the fighters inside the ring. Part of my job is to fight for the fighters outside the ring, and without blowing my own horn I can say I'm very good at that."

"I've seen a tape of him and he doesn't seem to have all that much experience," Williams said of Bell, who is 16-1 with 14 KOs. "He looks kind of green to me, at least a little bit."

Williams, 36, certainly has the edge in experience. Not only is he 34-5-1, he was a world champion after a TKO-9 win over Imamu Mayfield Oct. 30, 1998, until losing to current champion Vassiliy Jirov a year later.

"I know I've fought better guys than Bell has," Williams said. "Maybe he doesn't know that, or know what he's in for. If he doesn't know all that much about me, he'll be in for a surprise."

* QUICK HITS: A Paulie Ayala vs. Bones Adams rematch is on the drawing board for Jan. 19, likely from Mandalay Bay and on HBO. ... A newspaper in Puerto Rico has reported that Felix Trinidad has had a relationship with a woman who is now five months pregnant and who has relocated to Florida. Trinidad apparently has acknowledged the child as his own, and his father told the paper: "I won't try to justify it, but I've always said he is human with virtues and defects." ... Local amateur sensation Melinda Cooper added to her credentials over the weekend by taking the 119-pound championship in the Ringside Nationals in Oalthe, Kansas. Cooper, 16, raised her record to 25-2 with a knockout victory in the finals over Anne Sanchez. Competitors from the United States, Canada, Jamaica and Puerto Rico took part in the tournament.

Cedric Kushner Promotions has its Sept. 28 all-heavyweight card at Caesars Palace in order and will offer Robert Davis and Monte Barrett in its main event. Oddly enough, each man is 30 years old and has a record of 25-2 with 15 KOs. Six other fights are scheduled, including: David Defiagbon, 15-0, vs. Reynaldo Minus, 16-8, eight rounds; Willie Palms, 9-0, vs. Jean-Jacques Bergeron, 10-0, six rounds; Todd Diggs, 4-2-3, vs. Taurus Sykes, 14-1, six rounds; and Samuel Peter, 4-0, vs. Giles Knox, 4-0-1, four rounds. ... Prince Naseem Hamed's comeback will begin Nov. 10 in London when the former featherweight champion -- who was beaten by Marco Antonio Barrera last April in Las Vegas -- meets Spain's Manuel Calvo.