World Boxing Organization (WBO) Cruiserweight Champion Marco Huck (32-1, 23 KOs) has arrived in Munich where he will put his belt on the line against Hugo Hernan Garay (34-5, 18 KOs) on Saturday. “It will be an exciting week,” Huck promised. “I can promise my fans another spectacular performance and an exciting victory. Let´s get it on.”
Wolak vs. Rodriguez this Friday
This Friday night, long-time welterweight contender, and former world title challenger, Delvin Rodriguez, will step up in weight, and look to stake his claim amongst the elite of the jr. middleweight division, when he takes on red-hot, all-action, Pawel “Raging Bull” Wolak (29-1, 19KO’s) in the main event bout of the evening on ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights”. The bout, which will take place at New York City’s famed Roseland Ballroom, is promoted by Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing and is scheduled for ten rounds.
Boxing is a sport like no other. All it takes is one night, even just one punch, to change everything in your career. Rodriguez, who has suffered some bitter, and highly controversial defeats the past few years, see’s his fight against Wolak as just that.
“This is my opportunity to erase everything bad that has STAR BOXING happened the past few years, and put myself right back into the spotlight,” stated Rodriguez. “I can’t change what happened in the past, that’s something that I don’t have any control over and honestly I’m tired of talking about it. What I do have control over though is the fight on July 15th. A win against Pawel, who is coming off the biggest win of his career, and is rated in all of the four sanctioning bodies, puts me right back into the mix, and there is no way that I am letting that opportunity pass me by.”
After a stretch of fights that saw Rodriguez come up on the wrong end of some highly controversial, if not out-right robbery decisions, Rodriguez decided he need a change, a breathe of fresh air. That change came in Rodriguez decision to completely revamp his team, splitting ways with long-time trainer Lou Fusco and hiring Fernely Felix. Rodriguez also brought in a strength and conditioning coach Matt Petren,star boxing to make sure he made the move from welterweight to jr. middleweight properly. While Rodriguez admits the move from Fusco was hard, it was something he had to do.
“I was very close with Lou, so it was a very hard decision for me to bring in Fernely, but Lou was great about everything, and there were no hard feelings. I just needed a change. Fernely and I have known each other for awhile, and we hit it off right away. This has been one of the best training camps I have ever had. I’m bigger, stronger, and faster than I ever have been before, and come July 15th, not only will Pawel find that out, but everyone in the jr. middleweight division will find out that I am here, and I’m coming for those belts.”
The show is promoted by Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing, with the Rodriguez-Wolak bout promoted by Star Boxing, in association with Top Rank. Tickets are priced at $50, $75, $100 and $200 and can be purchased by calling Star Boxing at (718) 823-2000, or visiting www.starboxing.com. Tickets may also be purchased through any Ticketmaster outlet or simply by Clicking Here. Doors open at 6:30PM, with the first bout scheduled for 7:00PM. ESPN will begin live coverage at 9PM ET.
Graham Earl To Showcase Local Fighters On His 31st July ‘Renaissance’ Show
With the rematch of his classic 2007 ‘Fight of the Year’ encounter with Michael Katsidis firmly on hold for the foreseeable future, Graham Earl is keeping busy by presenting his third event of the year, ‘Renaissance’, which will take place in his home town of Luton on Sunday 31st July.
Heading up the card at the ‘Renaissance’ event are a pair of Graham Earl’s prodigies, Stevenage’s Terry Holmes and Belfast’s Joe Hillerby.
Terry Holmes has proved to be nothing short of sensational on his three previous outings, his last outing, against Jason Nesbitt at York Hall in May, is a fine example of the Stevenage teenager’s battling spirit
Holmes started strong and took the fight to the much more experienced Nesbitt. Each attack by him was met with strong resistance, Nesbitt countered with precision forcing Holmes to rethink his fight plan. It was a close round but Holmes had done the better work to earn the points.
Round two see Nesbitt take a leaf out of Holmes’ book, by starting fast and taking the fight to the Stevenage man. This worked to Holmes’ favour, Holmes is a classy boxer and Nesbitt’s new tactics allowed him to turn on the style. The later half of the round was all Holmes who plain boxed Nesbitt’s head off.
Round three and four produced more of the same, with Holmes utilising his superior boxing skills to easily secure the rounds, and the bout as the referee declared Holmes victorious by a shutout 40-36 points margin.
Belfast’s big hitting Joe Hillerby, will also be getting his fourth outing. Hillerby has also made quite an impact since turning pro in October last year. No surprise really, after all he’s an all action heavy hitter with a knockout finish, as proved on his debut against Gavin Putney, which lasted just 43 seconds!
His second fight, against tough battler Ryan Clark, went the full distance and proved to be one of the most exciting action packed fights of the night at Graham’s excellent ‘Capital Punishment’ event back in January.
Hillerby’s third bout, against last minute replacement Bheki Moyo – and I do mean last minute as Moyo took the bout with less than ninety minutes notice after the original opponent failed to show – also went the distance, although it did look like the ‘Belfast Banger’ may have been showing his appreciation, for the game Earl’s Court based South African stepping in to save the fight, as it looked like he could have stopped Moyo on a couple of occasions but pulled back.
Joining Terry Holmes and Joe Hillerby on the show is Luton based Floridian Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Oshundrinde, who will be looking to get his career on track, following his loss, due to retirement after injuring his hand, to Tichfield’s Danny Couzens back in May.
On the 31st Oshunrinde, who is coached by Barry Smith at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in London, will be facing Jahmaine Smyle for the second time in his fledgling career.
Their first meeting, at the magnificent ‘Capital Punishment’ event in January, had a highly contentious finish which see Oshunrinde robbed of his first win on British soil, when the referee declared the bout a
technical draw and not the clear first round stoppage finish it was, following the fight being stopped due to a serious cut over Smyle’s right eye.
‘Renaissance’ will also feature the debut of three of Graham Earl’s newest signings, Luton’s James Smith, Hatfield’s Tom Little and Donegal’s Danny Mulhern.
Tickets, priced £30, for the Graham Earl Promoted ‘Renaissance’ event at Liquid Nightclub, Gordon Street, Luton on Sunday July 31st 2011 are available on-line at www.tkoboxoffice.com
Col. Bob Sheridan returns to action
By Benny Ricardo: The pipes were clear; the energy through the roof and the main event took place right where he likes it, in his kill zone area. The Colonel, Bob Sheridan, was back on the air calling another championship fight that is rapidly nearing the thousand mark. Top Rank’s Director of TV production, Marty Corwin told the Colonel “You were in mid-season form, it was like you never left.
A legendary announcing career that dates all the way back to his call of the “Rumble in Jungle” between Ali and Foreman, at the Mai Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire back on October 30, 1974, was back on the air. Only this time The Colonel’s journey to announce a fight was longer than any he had ever had for this itinerary transcended life and death.
Saturday night from the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, the main event of Brandon Rios and Urbano Antillon was the kind of fights the Colonel loves to call. It took place in the zone he likes to call “The Kill Zone”. It’s that zone where boxers enter inside arms length where angles, waist and head movements are vital for survival. It is the kill zone because a fighter enters it willing to pay the price of knowing it is kill or be killed.
Rios was magnificent as was Antillon in bringing the fight to each other, it was one of those great fights where the ebb and flow had the Antillon and Rios fans seemingly doing the wave, taking turns jumping up and down. But even if it would not have been that great a fight, no problem. The Colonel has been known to use his pipes and rhetoric to make an ordinary seem extraordinary.
As the Colonel likes to describe his craft “I’m an entertainer, not a journalist and I am having fun calling the fight.” Nobody has had more fun in life than the Colonel but when faced with death he realized “Dying is easy, living is the hard part.”
Back from 30 days in a coma with fluid in his lungs, pneumonia, major back surgery and a rehab program that was 24/7 for over 6-months, The Colonel is back and there is no ten count to be heard for him, just his booming voice and passion for the sport he loves.
It was as if the Colonel’s beloved friend, ring announcer Jimmy Lennon announced the verdict of it all, “And still…the heavyweight champion announcer of all time…The Colonel, Bob Sheridan.