Univ. of Texas System Chancellor Francisco Gonzalez Cigarroa has decided against letting the upcoming Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Andy Lee WBC middleweight championship bout "take place in either the Sun Bowl or the Don Haskins Center," according to a front-page piece by Bill Knight of the EL PASO TIMES. Both venues are located on the UTEP campus. The fight "was scheduled for June 16 in the Sun Bowl and was expected to draw a huge crowd ... perhaps even rivaling the 45,368 that Oscar De La Hoya drew on June 13, 1998" at the venue when he defeated Patrick Charpentier. Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said, "This comes as a big shock. The fight will go on. We'd still like to have it in El Paso. We will appeal. But the fight will happen." A Univ. of Texas System Office of Public Affairs release yesterday stated, "A specific event risk assessment was performed and the conclusion was the risk was higher than normal." Arum said Top Rank was told only it was "because of a high security issue." Event coordinator Lester Bedford, who also helped coordinate the '98 De La Hoya fight along with Arum, said, "They are telling people El Paso is not safe. We did not even advertise in Juarez, [Mexico] ... 95 percent of the people coming to this fight will be from El Paso." Arum said that an announcement "will be made at the end of this week as to the location of the fight" (EL PASO TIMES, 4/25). USA TODAY's Bob Velin notes Top Rank "was an hour away from its press conference at the Sun Bowl to announce the fight when they were informed of the decision," but they "went ahead with the event anyway." Arum said that "unless university officials reverse their decision, the fight will either be moved to Houston's Toyota Center or the San Antonio Alamodome." Arum: "The only thing we can figure out is that so many people would be coming over the border to watch the fight. That's not a high security concern, that's just racist" (USATODAY.com, 4/24).
