“U.S. promoters decided that because there’s not a big American name in the heavyweight division, no fan following, there’s no point of doing events for heavyweights,” said Majeski. “A Catch-22 situation: Without heavyweight events, people are losing interest in this weight class which was so prominent for decades. This is why I’m so happy that Mariusz Kolodziej from Global Boxing, Jimmy Burchfield from CES, Frank Maloney who I know since his Lennox Lewis days and Andrzej Wasilewski from 12round KnockOut Promotions are working together to bring not one but a whole series of great heavyweight events to the U.S.”

The first event of the “Heavyweight Regeneration” series on March 24 in Atlantic City, will present the WBC International title defense 6’7 Mariusz Wach (26-0, 14 KOs) against 6’7 Tye Fields (49-4, 44 KOs), the U.S. debut of Great Britain’s new heavyweight star, 6’8 Olympian David Price (12-0, 10 KO) and 22-year old, but already getting a lot of attention from fans and boxing greats Artur Szpilka (9-0, 7 KO).

A boxing event in the U.S. with the active involvement of four different promoters should be in the Guinness Book of Records because we all know that more often than not, not even two of them can see eye to eye. But it will happen on March 24 in Atlantic City…

This is the biggest problem with today’s boxing – promoters are promoting their fighters, not the event. Fighter A can only fight fighter B and nobody cares that the most important part of this puzzle, boxing fans have nothing to say. This is, in my opinion, the number one reason why the heavyweight division is dying in US. Or is already dead. US promoters decided that because there’s not a big American name in the heavyweight division, no fan following, there’s no point in doing events for heavyweights. A Catch-22 situation: without heavyweight events, people are losing interest in this weight class, which was so prominent for decades. This is why I’m so happy that Mariusz Kolodziej from Global Boxing, Jimmy Burchfield from CES, Frank Maloney who I know since his Lennox Lewis days and Andrzej Wasilewski from 12round KnockOut Promotions are working together to bring not one but a whole series of great heavyweight events to the U.S. And the doors are open for all the others promoters who want to work with us.

The site of the first event of the “Heavyweight Regeneration” series, Atlantic City, was chosen because you were always a big fan of East Coast boxing.

You have to be, because the East Coast is the best place for boxing anywhere. You have a cultural and ethnic melting pot and all this tradition! It used to be that the best, legendary European heavyweights had to come to States to prove their worth. Primo Carnera, Ingemar Johansson, Max Schmeling were unbelievably popular. Max Schmeling fighting with Jack Sharkey or Joe Louis in Yankee Stadium was bringing tens of thousands of people with the second Louis fight bringing more than 70 thousand boxing fans. I know that we have different times, but I’m convinced that not so much different like most of the people think. You have tens of thousands watching live Filipino Manny Pacquiao fight a man from Ghana Joshua Clottey in the heart of Texas; or the same Pacquiao packing MGM Grand in Las Vegas when he fought Englishman Ricky Hatton. You can do it in lower weight classes. Why not do it the same for heavyweights? There a plenty of good, exciting guys in Europe who should be known here. This is what we want to do.

The first event will feature the WBC International title defense of 6’7 Mariusz Wach (26-0, 14 KOs) fighting 6’7 Tye Fields (49-4, 44 KOs), we will have England’s biggest – literally and figuratively – hope for heavyweight domination 6’8 David Price (12-0, 10 KOs) and the very exciting Artur Szpilka (9-0, 7 KOs), only 22 years old but already getting rave reviews from boxing greats…

All of them are new blood in this division. Wach wants to prove how he’s developed, to show all his fans why he’s getting closer and closer to a title shot. Price, who in summer hopes to fight Tyson Fury in a mega fight with even bigger future implications, this is a chance to present his talent in the States. Artur Szpilka’s Polish promoter thinks globally not locally, so he is not afraid to challenge his young star. There’s so many other good, becoming a great, European fighters to showcase in the States: Robert Helenius, Alexander Dimitrenko, Dennis Boytsov, and you can add many more to that list. They are practically unknown to the American public, but it does not mean that they are not worth seeing.

When I spoke in 1994 to Lennox Lewis in Atlantic City before his WBC title fight against Phil Jackson, he was just “some big guy from England”. Unknown and underappreciated.

Exactly. And we all know how this story ended.

When we talked about bringing the best of European heavyweights to U.S. shores, you didn’t include brothers Vitali and Vladimir Klitschko. Nothing to prove for them?

They are in a separate class of heavyweights. Established, packing soccer stadiums in Europe for many years, there’s nothing for them to gain fighting in US. Vitali and Wladimir, as long they will be in top form and healthy, will dominate and we all know that they will never fight each other. But we want boxing fans in the U.S. to have a chance to follow the next generation live, right here, to show America the real heavyweight future. I have no doubt that we will be able to do this with the “Heavyweight Regeneration” series.

By Przemek Garczarczyk/fightnews.com
Photo: Boxing Bob Newman