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LOS ANGELES – Boxing promoter Dan Goossen, who handled some of the biggest names in the sport including Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather and Bernard Hopkins, died from liver cancer. He was 64.

“The sudden news of his diagnosis was very much a private matter and his final days were spent surrounded by his family and closest friends,” the Goossen family said in a statement, released on Monday.

For the past several years, Goossen had been handling Chris Arreola, hoping to make the Los Angeles-based boxer the first heavyweight champion of Mexican ancestry.

Canada’s Bermane Stiverne easily defeated Arreola in May for the vacant world heavyweight title at the University of South California. Arreola also lost a world title fight to Vitali Klitschko in 2009 at Staples Center Arena.

Goossen also handled world super-middleweight champ Andre Ward.

Goossen, a colorful, gregarious man turned boxing promoting into a family business.

He promoted many of boxing’s top stars over the past quarter of a century, including James Toney, Michael Nunn, Terry Norris, Andre Ward, David Reid, Gabriel and Rafael Ruelas, Chris Arreola, David Tua, Joel Casamayor, Paul Williams, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather.

Goossen began in the sport when, along with his nine brothers and sisters, he founded Ten Goose Boxing, promoting regular shows at Reseda Country Club in Reseda, California. — AFP.