Promoter Ahmet Oner (ARENA) just signed a long-term promotional contract with red hot light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera. The 29 year old Cuban who lives and trains in Miami, Florida, is one of the fastest rising stars in boxing today. Barrera literally blew away all of his opponents since turning pro in August 2009. With his most recent KO-win over Frank Paines in June, Barrera collected two regional titles and secured himself a top 15 spot in the WBC and WBA ratings after only eight pro-fights. It was no other than Cuban superstar Yuriorkis Gamboa who introduced Barrera to Oner and initiated the promotional deal.
“I know that Ahmet is one of the best promoters in the world”, says Gamboa who will function as manager for Barrera. “He knows how to match his fighters and get them in position for world title shots. And Sullivan surely has the potential to become a huge star.”
“Sullivan Barrera will be world champion very soon”, adds Oner. “He is one of the greatest talents in the sport.”
Oner has quite some experience in promoting Cuban fighters. In 2007 he signed the 2004 Olympic gold medalists Gamboa, Odlanier Solis and Yan Barthelemy. Two years later light middleweight contender Erislandy Lara turned professional under his banner as well.
ARENA Sports-Promotion is originally based in Germany but Oner lives in Miami now where he opened a branch of his globally working company last year. Besides his Cuban stars Oner also represents WBC Silver welterweight champion Selcuk Aydin who is scheduled to fight Jo Jo Dan in November and might be on collision course with former light welterweight champion Devon Alexander.
Premier Sports broadcast ‘This is Hard Knocks’ Live Friday 7th October 8pm. Sky Channel 433
Premier Sports are delighted to be broadcasting the first of six Spencer Fearon events from York Hall starting this Friday 7th October with ‘This is Hard Knocks’ live at 8pm.
Fans can tune into see the magnificent Mongolian Warrior Choi return to action against Bandung Patavikorngym after his British fight of the year contender against Jackson Asiku in the summer.
Living up to the Hard Knocks ‘Every fight is a Main Event’ mantra three other tremendous contests will be shown live.
Southern Area champion Darren Hamilton faces Midland Area titlist Dave Ryan in a rematch with the winner in line for a British title shot. In addition, two prospects go head-to-head in too close-to-call match-ups as hot cruiserweight Mitchell Balker takes on Hari Miles and fighting Irishman Simon O’Donnell meets the skilful Ty Mitchell.
Presented by Andy Kerr the show will see the co-commentary debut of the ‘Dark Lord’ himself Adam Booth, alongside Alex Steedman.
Richard Webb from Premier Sports said, “We are thrilled to finally give Spencer and his team the platform Hard Knocks deserves. We have tracked the events for a while now and they really stand out and can’t be beaten in terms of atmosphere and competitiveness. Spencer has been putting on 50-50 fights from the beginning and has tapped into fans craving for proper match ups. We are now delighted to be able to bring this to a wider audience.”
Spencer commented, “I am delighted to have the opportunity to show more boxing fans our product on Premier Sports – a company that has proved its commitment to the sport over the last 12 months.
“Boxing by its nature cannot rely on one fight a night to guarantee value for money. That is why we lead the way in stacking our cards with fights where the only guaranteed winner is the fan.”
By the end of October Premier Sports will have broadcast 35 events from around the globe for the great value price of £7.99 per month. On top of Boxing they also show live South American football, National Rugby League from Australia, Blue Square football, NASCAR and MMA. Fans can sign up to watch all this action at www.premiersports.tv or by calling 0871 663 9000.
NEWS – GB Boxing secures 4 places at London 2012 as 6 boxers progress to the quarter finals of the World Championships
Great Britain has secured four places at the 2012 Olympics as six of the GB Boxing team made it through to the quarter finals of the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Tom Stalker, Luke Campbell and Fred Evans all guaranteed themselves a place at next year’s Olympics with a series of convincing victories.
Andrew Selby from Wales and Khalid Yafai from England both achieved the qualifying standard with comfortable wins in the flyweight category yet must wait and see which of them will secure the Olympic berth. If one of them becomes World Champion they will secure the qualifying place; if neither wins the title outright, the pair will box-off for a place at London 2012.
Super-heavyweight, Anthony Joshua, also progressed to the quarter finals but will need to reach the last four or be defeated by the eventual Champion to meet the qualifying standard for London.
GB Boxing’s Performance Director, Rob McCracken said: “To get six boxers into the quarter-finals of the World Championships and qualify for the Olympics in four categories is an excellent performance but the job is far from done. It has been a good day for British boxing but the challenge now is to secure another qualifier and for those boxers that have booked their place in London to go on and win a medal.”
Luke Campbell added: “It’s an incredible feeling. The hard work and dedication has finally paid off. It was never straight-forward and there were times I thought I might not make it. But I kept my discipline and trained hard.”
Liverpool’s Tom Stalker led the charge with a superb 17-9 defeat of Russia’s highly-rated, light welterweight (64kg), Alexander Solyanikov.
He was followed by Hull bantamweight (56kg), Campbell, who defeated Mohamed Ouadahi of Algeria 11-9 with a typically accomplished performance to set-up a quarter-final against Bulgaria’s reigning World champion Detelin Dalakliev – whom Campbell beat to win the European title in 2008.
Cardiff’s 2010 European Champion Fred Evans secured his place with a routine 12-6 win over German welterweight (69kg) Patrick Wojcicki.
The fourth qualifying slot was secured in the 52kg flyweight category where Yafai from Birmingham and Selby from Barry achieved the qualification standard. Yafai was never in trouble as he eased to a 27-15 win over Elias Emigdio of Mexico. European Champion, Selby, showed his class with a 25-12 victory over Chatchai Butdee from Thailand.
Super-heavyweight (91kg), Anthony Joshua, moved a step nearer to appearing in his home-town Olympics with a 16-7 win over Morocco’s Mohammed Arjaqui. He will box the 2008 Olympic champion, Roberto Cammarelle in tomorrow’s quarter final.
The only disappointments on a great day for GB Boxing were defeats for middleweight (75kg), Anthony Ogogo, who lost 17-12 to Esquiva Falcao of Brazil and heavyweight (91kg), Simon Vallily, who went down 16-10 to Algeria’s Chaoualb Bouloudinats.
Details of all today’s bouts are available at www.gbboxing.org.uk.
Live coverage of tomorrow’s quarter finals and the rest of the tournament can be seen from 1100 and 1500 at www.AIBAboxingTV.com and http://www.gbsport.tv.