Strong Undercard at DCU Center Saturday | Holmes Faces Karmazin
3/28 - It has been said the Don King Productions’ undercard matches are often better than most promoters’ main events and Saturday night at the DCU Center will not be an exception.
Two-time World Boxing Council middleweight champion Keith Holmes will
face
leading contender Roman “Made in Hell Karmazin in an International
Boxing
Federation junior middleweight championship elimination bout.
Holmes, (39-3, 25 KOs) from Washington, D.C., reached the pinnacle of
his
career when he faced reigning IBF middleweight champion Bernard “The
Executioner” Hopkins in the first round of Don King’s Middleweight
World
Championship Series on April 14, 2001. Holmes lost a hard-fought
decision
and Hopkins went on to beat the then-undefeated Felix “Tito” Trinidad
to
become the first undisputed middleweight world champion since Marvelous
Marvin Hagler held that distinction in 1987.
Holmes vegetarian lifestyle has enabled him to easily drop down to
junior
middleweight in his last two fights. He won a majority decision in
last
appearance against Russian Kuvanych Toygonbayev in Temecula, Calif. on
March
14, 2004.
Karmazin (32-1-1, 21 KOs), from Russia now fighting out of Los Angeles,
may
be best none for a fight he was scheduled to participate in that never
took
place. He was to have faced “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya in 2001
before a hand injury caused De La Hoya to cancel. Karmazin’s lone loss
came
by close decision in his first world title fight for the interim WBC
154-pound crown against Javier Castillejo.
In his last ring appearance, Karmazin’s fight was stopped after four
rounds
when Jason Papillon was unable to continue after an accidental headbutt
in
Las Vegas on May 15, 2004.
A scheduled 10-round cruiserweight attraction pits undefeated No.
2-ranked
WBC contender Steve Cunningham, (16-0, 9 KOs) from Philadelphia,
against
highly respected veteran and No. 4-ranked World Boxing Association
contender
Guillermo Jones, (31-2-2, 24 KOs) from Colon, Panama.
Another former world champion, Lou Del Valle (34-3-1, 22 KOs), from
Bronx,
N.Y., who held the WBA light heavyweight title and holds the
distinction of
being the first fighter to knock down Roy Jones Jr. when they met in
1998,
will take on local veteran Dan Sheehan, (10-31, 4 KOs) from Brockton,
in a
scheduled eight-rounder.
No. 2 WBC contender Miguel Angel Rodriguez, (25-1, 20 KOs) from
Naucalpan,
Mexico, will take on Luis Maysonet, (32-9, 25 KOs) from Hartford,
Conn., in
an eight-round welterweight attraction while undefeated featherweight
Elio
Rojas, (10-0, 9 KOs) from Brooklyn, N.Y., will square off in a
six-round
match against Angelo Torres, (12-11-3, 3 KOs) from Lakewood, Wash.
Doors will open at the DCU Center at 5:30 p.m. with the first bout
scheduled
to begin at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets priced at $35, $50, $100 and $250 are on sale now at the DCU
Center
Box Office, all area Ticketmaster locations, online at
ticketmaster.com, or
charge by phone at (617) 931-2000 or (617) 228-6000. All tickets are
subject
to a $.50 facility fee.
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