Atlantic City, NJ (July 8, 2011) – The Junior Middleweight bout between Paul “The Punisher” Williams and Cuban southpaw Erislandy Lara and World Boxing Association (WBA) Super Bantamweight Championship bout between WBA #1-ranked Rico Ramos and Akifumi Shimoda are just 24 hours away and the officials have been announced.
The assigned officials for Williams-Lara are Al Bennett of New Jersey, Hilton Whitaker of New Jersey and Don Givens of New Jersey and the assigned referee is Sam Viruet of New Jersey.
The assigned officials for the Ramos-Shimoda bout are Barbara Perez of New Jersey, George Hill of Pennsylvania, John Stewart of New Jersey and the referee is Benyji Esteves of New Jersey
About Williams-Lara and Ramos-Shimoda
Paul “The Punisher” Williams looks to make statement against unbeaten and world ranked Cuban defector Erislandy Lara (15-0-1, 10 KOs) in a battle of southpaws. Williams-Lara headlines the HBO telecast in a scheduled 12-round bout, which also features WBA #1-ranked Rico Ramos (19-0, 10 KOs) challenging World Champion, Akifumi Shimoda (23-2-1, 10 KOs) in a 12-round bout for the Tokyo native’s WBA Super Bantamweight Championship.
The Championship event is promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions, with the Williams-Lara bout in association with Golden Boy Promotions and the Ramos-Shimoda bout in association with Teiken Promotions and hosted by Caesars Atlantic City. The Williams vs. Lara and Shimoda vs. Ramos bouts will be broadcast on HBO’s Boxing After Dark beginning at 10:15 PM ET/PT (delayed on the west coast). Tickets, priced at $300, $200, $100 and $50, are on sale and can be purchased at the Boardwalk Hall box office, by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 736-1420 or online at ticketmaster.com.
WEIGHTS FROM PHILADELPHIA
Reynaldo Ojeda 138 lbs – Ramon Ellis 134 lbs
Luis Cream 147 lbs – Jesse Crawford 146 lbs
Bo Latimer 156 lbs – Allen Perkins 154 lbs
Fred Jenkins Jr. 163 lbs – Stephen Franklin 158 lbs
Promoter: Wilkes Productions
Venue: The Palladium
1st Bell: 7:30 pm
Ex-champ Rivera joins lineup at Mohegan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (July 8, 2011) – After winning close to 40 fights in 15 years and capturing three world titles, Jose Antonio Rivera suddenly reached a point in his career he never thought he’d see three decades ago when he first put on a pair of gloves at 8 years old.
“Boxing wasn’t fun anymore,” said the former three-time world champion from Worcester, Mass.
Weighed down by personal problems outside of the ring, Rivera hit the wall in 2007 when he lost his World Boxing Association (WBA) light middleweight title to Travis Simms. He announced his retirement shortly thereafter, only to attempt a brief comeback 10 months later that left him with an injured hand.
This time, it appeared Rivera (40-6-1, 24 KOs) was done for good, but the former welterweight and light middleweight title-holder proved you can’t keep a champion down for long, making his second comeback in May with a unanimous decision win over Luis Maysonet at the Palladium in Worcester.
Only three months removed from his 38th birthday, Rivera now has his sights set on a much bigger prize as he prepares to continue his comeback Friday, July 29th, 2011 on the undercard of Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports’ “Heat Wave” show at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
Rivera will fight in a special eight-round light middleweight attraction on a show that features two championship bouts – a 12-round showdown between Kevin McBride (35-9-1, 29 KOs) and Mariusz Wach (24-0, 12 KOs) for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) International heavyweight title, and a 10-round intrastate battle between Elvin Ayala (23-5-1, 11 KOs) of New Haven, Conn., and rival Israel “Pito” Cardona (36-10, 28 KOs) of Hartford for the vacant WBC United States National Boxing Council (USNBC) middleweight title.
“I’m trying to push myself and test myself to see how much I have left in the tank,” said Rivera, who was born in Philadelphia and also lived in Puerto Rico before moving to Worcester as a teenager. “My goal is to get back into world-championship form.
“I want to ease my way into a couple of fights this year and by next year hopefully I’ll be knocking on the door of another big fight. … You’re only as old as you feel.”
Asked how old he feels, Rivera said, “Twenty-eight, both mentally and physically.”
How he feels mentally is arguably more important right now than how Rivera feels physically, especially considering the internal problems that derailed his career four years ago. His first comeback attempt in 2008 ended with a win over Clarence Taylor, but Rivera admits he still would’ve walked away again even without the subsequent hand injury because his “mind wasn’t right.”
“The injury was just the icing on the cake,” he said. “That gave me a more convenient excuse to retire, but the truth is I was still dealing with a lot of personal stuff, too.”
The idea of returning to the ring a second time was always in the back of his mind during his retirement phase, but Rivera didn’t pull the trigger until he knew he was mentally ready.
“I had to type up all the loose ends in my life,” he said. “As soon as everything was good, I said to myself, ‘OK, now is the time.’ Being mentally prepared is the key. I don’t care how strong you are. You could be a beast in that ring, but if you’re not mentally ready, then it all goes out the window.
“That’s what got me to take some time off. Everything going on in my life was affecting my performance and my career.”
On May 20th at the Palladium, Rivera proved he made the right decision with a convincing win over Maysonet, a Hartford native who entered the bout with 32 wins, including 25 by knockout. The former world champion struggled early, but settled into a groove later in the fight after solving Maysonet’s game plan. Rivera captured an eight-round unanimous decision, 79-73, on all three scorecards.
“I didn’t expect him to try to outbox me,” Rivera said. “He seemed hesitant to move inside. We trained for a brawl, and I had to adjust midway through the fight. His style kind of threw me off a little. By the time I warmed up in the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds, I was unloading on him.
“To tell you the truth, it went by so quickly. When I went back to my corner after the eighth round, the referee came to me and said the fight was over. I asked if he had quit and the referee said, ‘No, that’s eight rounds!’”
Rivera’s next bout on July 29th will go a long way toward determining whether his dream of winning a fourth world title – he captured the WBA light middleweight and welterweight titles, in addition to the International Boxing Organization (IBO) welterweight title – is a realistic premise or an improbable fantasy. One thing that’s certain is Rivera views his age as an advantage, not a roadblock, as he aims to follow in the footsteps of legends George Foreman and Bernard Hopkins, who beat the odds to win world titles at the ages of 45 and 46, respectively (Hopkins accomplished the feat by beating Jean Pascal the night after Rivera’s comeback win over Maysonet).
“A lot of people knock it, and that’s fine because it just gives me more motivation, but the great thing about being an older fighter is I bring a lot of experience to the ring,” Rivera said. “I know my body. Conditioning has always been the key to my success, and it’s one of the main reasons I became champion, but some of my losses were a result of over-training when I was younger; I left it all in the gym. The things I took for granted back then are things I no longer take for granted anymore. That’s what makes it enjoyable.”
Rivera’s having fun again, and that could be bad news for the elite fighters in the 154-pound division.
“I just want another chance at a title fight, whether it’s the World Boxing Council (WBC), WBA or IBO – any of them,” Rivera said. “This is a great opportunity for me, and I’m excited to be on this card. I’ve always wanted to fight at Mohegan Sun and now I’ll have that chance. I’m just thankful Burchfield was able to make it happen.”
The undercard of “Heat Wave” features Pawtucket, R.I., middleweight Thomas Falowo (3-0, 3 KOs) facing Russ Niggemyer (2-2, 2 KOs) of Hilliard, Ohio; New Haven welterweight Edwin Soto (6-0-1, 2 KOs) battling Jose Duran (6-5-2, 3 KOs) of Sarasota, Fla.; undefeated heavyweight Artur Spzilka of Poland (5-0, 3 KOs) facing Philadelphia’s David Williams (6-4-1, 2 KOs), and New Bedford, Mass., welterweight Johnathan Vazquez (4-0, 3 KOs) taking on Agustine Maurus of Lawrence, Mass., in Maurus’ debut. Cruiserweight Jose Torres of Springfield, Mass., will make his debut; super middleweight Greg McCoy (2-3-1, 1 KO) of New Haven will fight in a separate four-round bout; and super middleweight Keith Kozlin (6-2, 4 KOs) of Warwick, R.I., will face Woonsocket’s Reynaldo Rodriguez (5-2, 2 KOs) in a six-round intrastate showdown. Also, former “The Contender” reality television star Jeff Fraza (17-3, 10 KOs) of Haverhill, Mass., will face Pawtucket, R.I., light middleweight Eddie Soto (12-2, 4 KOs) in a six-round bout. All fights and fighters are subject to change.
Tickets for “Heat Wave,” which are priced at $40, $65 and $105, can be purchased by calling CES at 401.724.2253/2254 or Ticketmaster at 1.800.745.3000. Fans can also purchase tickets online at www.cesboxing.com, www.ticketmaster.com, or at the Mohegan Sun Box Office. For more information on “Heat Wave,” visit www.cesboxing.com or www.mohegansun.com. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the first bout scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
MICHAEL “THE ARTIST” PEREZ CHOSEN BY FANS AS THE WINNER OF CINTURÓN TECATE
With 87 Percent of “Sólo Boxeo Tecate” Viewers’ Votes, Perez Is Recognized As The Boxer With Most Carácter
NEW YORK (July 8, 2011) – Throughout this season of “Sólo Boxeo Tecate,” fans have been given the opportunity to celebrate their passion for the sport of boxing by voting for the fighter who displays the most talent, determination and carácter in the ring each Friday night.
Today, Cerveza Tecate is proud to announce that Michael “The Artist” Perez is the winner of the second of four “Cinturón Tecate” belts to be awarded in 2011, having earned viewers’ respect and 87% of all votes cast during his May 13 fight against Ira Terry in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Perez will be accepting the award during tonight’s “Solo Boxeo Tecate” broadcast on TeleFutura at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT (10:30 p.m. CT); and will appear on Univision’s premier sports talk show, “Republica Deportiva” on Sunday, July 10 to talk about what it means to be a boxer con carácter.
A Newark, New Jersey native, Perez has proven that he is a force to be reckoned with, with an undefeated record of 13-0-1 with 7 wins coming by way of knockout. This year, Perez has stopped Marco Herrera in eight rounds on Feb. 4 and Ira Terry in just three rounds. During his amateur career, he earned three East Coast titles, the 2003 Silver Gloves Championship, the 2005 Junior Olympic National Title and the 2008 National Golden Gloves Title. Perez is scheduled to return to “Sólo Boxeo Tecate” on August 19, when fans will once again have the chance to judge his carácter.
“Cinturón Tecate” (Tecate Belt) is an award created to support the boxers who display the most carácter in the ring during the “Sólo Boxeo Tecate” broadcast each Friday night on TeleFutura. Tecate recognizes that viewers at home are the best judges and allows them to participate by sending a text message to 55333 or visit Univision.com to vote for their favorite boxer of the night. Their opinions shaped the final rankings for the second “Cinturón Tecate” of 2011:
Ranking Boxer % of Votes Date of Fight
1 Michael Perez 87% May 13
2 Jessie Vargas 82% April 8
3 Leo Santa Cruz 80% June 3
4 Librado Andrade 75% May 6
5 Charles Huerta 75% May 20
6 Peter Quillin 68% April 29
7 Brian Vera 57% June 24
8 Elco García 51% June 10
The third “Cinturón Tecate” belt of the year will be awarded to the boxer who receives the highest percentage of votes during his “Sólo Boxeo Tecate” bout between July and September. Fans’ next opportunity to support their favorite boxer is tonight, July 8 with the return of a “Sólo Boxeo Tecate” veteran in Mayweather Promotions’ rising undefeated prospect Jessie Vargas, who will face Walter Estrada from the Buffalo Bill’s Star of the Desert Arena in Primm, Nev.
For more information on “Cinturón Tecate,” results or to speak with a brand executive about the brand’s continuous support of boxing, please contact FORMULATIN at (212) 219-0321.