IAN NAPA has left home to make sure he’s in shape for his British bantamweight title defence against Jamie McDonnell at Brentwood Centre on January 22. The big freeze has meant that Napa cannot run near his home in East London and is moving into a hotel with trainer Brian Lawrence today (Mon). Hackney’s Napa (19-7) cannot afford to lose against his Yorkshire rival especially after being nominated to fight Frenchman Jerome Arnould for the vacant European title. Promoter Frank Maloney: “It is a wise move by Ian and the gym won’t just keep him away from distractions..
“It has full gym facilities with a running machine, so his roadwork will not be neglected.
“He has been unable to run near his home because of the ice. If he fell over the fight would be off and he would lose the nomination to box Arnould.
“Ian knows that another defeat will end his world title aspirations and he would hate to retire having been one of British boxing’s best talents never to challenge for a world title.
“This shows me how serious he is and Ian is even paying for the hotel out of his purse.”
Ironically the purse bids for 31-year-old Napa’s fight against Arnould will take place a few hours before he faces McDonnell (12-2-1)
On the same bill Cheshunt’s cocky Ashley Sexton (8-0) faces fellow extrovert Usman Ahmed (6-2-1) in a clash for the vacant English flyweight championship.
Maloney’s heavyweight Larry Olubamiwo (6-1) moves up a notch when he boxes Irish puncher Scott Belshaw (10-3).
tickets from frankmaloney.com.
Sam Sexton: I’m Hungry Like A Wolf!
Commonwealth heavyweight champion Sam Sexton has added some bite to his training camp by teaming up with two wolf dogs.
Sexton, who tackles British champion Danny Williams on February 13 at Wembley Arena, has been out running with Tia and Oslo, both of whom are far happier in the snow than he is.
“Doing roadwork while trying to keep control of two dogs isn’t easy,” said the 25-year-old who headlines Warren’s huge Night of the Champions show live on Sky Sports.
“But they are helping to build up my strength ahead of the Williams fight and that’s exactly what I need at the moment.
“Danny’s a great fighter but as far as his career is concerned, the wolves are beginning to circle.
“He’ll need a silver bullet to beat me at Wembley and I plan on knocking him out and taking the British heavyweight title in style.”
Sexton captured the Commonwealth title with a win against Martin Rogan in Belfast last year before making a successful defence against the Irishman in an instant rematch.
And now he has the chance to add the coveted Lonsdale belt to his trophy cabinet on an action-packed card in North London.
Night of the Champions features the exciting heavyweight showdown between British heavyweight champion Danny Williams and Commonwealth champion Sam Sexton; Kevin Mitchell’s WBO Intercontinental Lightweight title defence; Kell Brook’s WBO Intercontinental Welterweight title challenge; Derek Chisora versus Matt Skelton for the Vacant English Heavyweight Championship; The Olympians James DeGale, Frankie Gavin and Billy Joe Saunders; plus hot prospects Vinny Mitchell and Liam, Michael and Ryan Walsh.
Tickets priced at £40, £50, £75, £100 and £150, are available from:
See Tickets
0871 220 0260
www.seetickets.com
New Year, New Venue For London’s Judgement Day Boxing Series – Judgement Day III On 27th February.
Rooney’s Boxing Gym announced today that their hugely successful Judgement Day Boxing series will be moving to an all new, larger capacity, venue at T47 in St Thomas Street, Southwark, London SE1, for 2010.
The Judgement Day series, which was previously held at Cable night club in Southwark, quickly became established as the standard that White Collar Boxing events are judged by.
The sold out crowd at Judgement Day One, on the 30th September ‘09, were treated to a professional level six bout White Collar Boxing card, including an all female match up, followed by an explosive exhibition match by BanDogs MMA stars Jamaine Facey and Michael Brown.
Early in October Revolver Entertainment joined up with Rooney’s Boxing Gym for Judgement Day II to promote their TYSON THE MOVIE Platinum Knockout Edition. Also around this time it was decided to add extra elements, of live music and Burlesque, to the already excellent show format.
Just 56 days after the inaugural event, on the 25th November ‘09, Judgement Day II took place, again at Cable. As before the event was sold-out and this time the crowd were not only royally entertained by six professional standard fights but were also treated to a very special tribute to the world of boxing by Burlesque star MISS GIGI RAMONE followed by an amazing set by the outrageous, Glam Punk Rock band SPIDERBABY that literally bought the house down.
That wasn’t all as besides the showing of the bonus fight scenes from TYSON THE MOVIE Platinum Knockout Edition throughout the proceedings there was a special screening of TYSON THE MOVIE to end the highly entertaining night.
Following Judgement Day II it was clear that the series had already outgrown Cable and the search was on for a larger venue.
Rooney’s Boxing Gym publicist, Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro, explained how they came to chose T47. “What can I say, Cable has served us well but due to the limitations of their layout we just couldn’t get any more people in to Judgement Day II. We could easily have sold double the tickets we did.
We wanted to keep Judgement Day III in Southwark. Rooney’s Boxing Gym is here is Southwark and as such we feel that all Judgement Day events should also be here.
We were looking at possibly holding the next event at SE1 club, which would have given us extra capacity, but still would have been limiting us a little.
We found T47 totally by accident. Just before Christmas I was walking back to the gym from Borough market when I noticed the place. Later that day John (Rooney’s Gym owner John Rooney Jnr.) and I went to have a look around and knew straight away it would make the perfect new home for the Judgement Day series. The really good thing about T47 is that the seated capacity alone is twice that of the standing capacity at Cable.
Now we just have to put together a show that tops Judgement Day II and does the new venue justice. It’s going to be hard as Judgement Day II was totally awesome, but we know we can do it.
I expect to be making announcements very soon on both the full lineup for Judgement Day III as well as the planned post fight entertainment.”
Judgement Day III will be held at T47, 47 St Thomas Street, London SE1 3QX on Saturday 27th January 2010. Doors open at 7.00pm.
Tickets for Judgement Day III are priced £15 (Standing), £30.00 (unreserved seated) and £50.00 (V.I.P.) and are available from Rooney’s Boxing Gym, 895/896 Holyrood Street, London SE1 2EL or call 020 7403 6113 or on the door from 7.00pm