Photo by Rick Pineda – Cuban rising stars Yuriorkis Gamboa, Odlanier Solis and Erislandy Lara looked focused but also relaxed at the press conference for their fights on Friday at Terrible’s Primm Valley Casino Resorts in Primm, Nevada. “We had a great preparation, everything went according to plans”, stated “El Ciclon” Gamboa. “Of course, it is hard to work over Christmas and New Year’s but I love what I’m doing and I know that I have to make certain sacrifices to become champion of the world..”
Gamboa (12-0, 10 kos) is very close to fulfilling his great dream. If he can beat Roger Gonzalez (27-2, 18 kos) on Friday his next fight will be for the WBC interim featherweight championship.
Heavyweight sensation Solis (12-0, 8 kos) will have to wait a little longer for his first title shot. But by defending his WBC international championship against “Big Man” Kevin Burnett (13-1-1, 8 kos) “La Sombra” could take another important step towards the top of the world.
“I am happy to have the chance to show the US fans what I am made of”, said Solis. “I want to prove that I am the next big thing in the heavyweight division. I want to become champion of the world as soon as possible.”
Like Solis fellow Cuban and 2005 world amateur champion Erislandy Lara (2-0, 1 ko) will give his US debut on Friday in Primm. Lara faces Rodrigo Aguiar (5-3, 3 kos) from Las Vegas.
ESPN2 will broadcast the show as season premiere for “Friday Night Fights”. There will be seven fights in total. Doors open at 5.00pm. Some tickets are still available for US$ 35.00 and US$ 10.00 (plus fees); call 1-800-FUN-STOP or visit www.primmvalleyresorts.com.
Baltic Boxing Union news – January 2009
Baltic Boxing Union heavyweight title defense
Baltic Boxing Union heavyweight champion Juho Haapoja (Fin) 7 (5 KO)-2-1 will defend his BBU title on the 21st February in Vaasa, Finland against opponent to be announced later. The title fight is scheduled for eight rounds.
The show is promoted be a new Finnish professional boxing stable and manager group called as Caramelito Promotions which is led by Juho Haapoja´s personal coach Petro Koskimies.
Juho Haapoja, whose manager is Markku Pirinen from Steel Ring, is a 28 years old professional boxer from Yliharma, Finland. After a loss in his debut Haapoja has improved quickly to title fight level. In 2008 Haapoja won in all three fights and lost only to Russian Denis Bakhtov in Russian´s home ground. With those three victories Haapoja captured both Finnish national and BBU titles. The BBU belt Haapoja won in April 2008 against Russian Daniel Peret. The upcoming fight will be Haapoja´s first title defense ever and also at the same time the first ever title defense made by BBU champion.
2008 Baltic Boxing Union AWARDS
1) Boxer of the year: Juho Haapoja (Fin). Juho Haapoja 7 (5 KO)-2-1 won the vacant BBU heavyweight title on April by beating Russian Daniel Peret with split decision. Later the same year Haapoja won the vacant Finnish national heavyweight title. Haapoja will defend his BBU title on the 21th February 2009.
2) Prospect of the year: Sergey Melis (Est). Sergey Melis 11 (1 KO)-0-0 was the first ever BBU champion when he won the vacant BBU middleweight title in his home town Narva, Estonia by unanimous decision against Latvian Olegs Fedotovs. In all the 26 years old Melis won 4 fights during 2008.
3) Fight of the year: Matt Zegan (Pol) – Dariusz Snarski (Pol). The show in Wieliczka, Poland 7th November was spectacular. The fight was the main event for the show which was arranged 180 meters underground! The fight got very much national and international media value. After the close fight former WBO world title challenger Matt Zegan (38 (21 KO)-4-0) was crowned as the new BBU lightweight champion.
4) Promoter of the year: Tomasz Babilonski, Tom Boxing Team (Pol). There were fought two BBU title fights and one BBU International title fights in Poland in great shows which Mr Babilonski promoted there during late October and early November. Tomasz Babilonski with his Tom Boxing Team is currently the most active Polish promoter.
5) Special nomination: Oleg Bogdanov (Rus). In July manager and promoter Oleg Bogdanov promoted a big show in Vyborg, Russia with which BBU got foothold in Russia. Also Bogdanov has made great work for Baltic area´s professional boxing with his faithful manager work.
6) Special nomination: Gregory Soszynski (Pol). The 26 years old Soszynski (11 (5 KO)-0-1) has proved to be a real warrior and prospect after coming down with weights. With six convincing victories and two different titles during 2008 gives all trust for success at Soszynski´s later career.
Situation of BBU titles:
BBU champions
Heavyweight: Juho Haapoja (Fin) 7 (5 KO) – 2 – 1
Light Heavyweight: Gregory Soszynski (Pol) 11 (5 KO) – 0 – 1
Lightweight: Matt Zegan (Pol) 38 (21 KO) – 4 – 0
Bantamweight: Andrey Kostin (Rus) 19 (6 KO) – 9 – 0
BBU International champion
middleweight: Mariusz Cendrowski (Pol) 17 (7 KO) – 1 – 1