TalkingBoxing News
Lorenzo-Kamya co-feature on St. Patrick's Day Eve PPV show at MSG
TUE, February 6 - Unbeaten middleweight contender Giovanni Lorenzo will fight veteran "Doctor" Robert Kamya in the 10-round co-feature March 16 on the "Erin Go Brawl" pay-per-view event, headlined by "Ireland's" John Duddy taking on The Contender I star Anthony "The Bullet" Bonsante in the 12-round main event, live in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
"Erin Go Brawl," presented by Irish Ropes Promotions, will be broadcast live in North America on cable and satellite pay-per-view starting at 9 PM/ET, 6 PM/PT. The event is being produced and distributed for pay-per-view by Integrated Sports and will be available in more than 50-million homes in North America via iN Demand, TVN, DirecTV and Dish Network in the USA, as well as Viewer's Choice in Canada, for a suggested retail price of only $24.95. The full "Erin Go Brawl" PPV broadcast will be available to viewers outside of North America via streaming video subscription on www.secondsout.com.
Duddy (18-0, 15 KOs), rated No. 7 by the WBO and No. 9 by the WBA, defends his IBA World and WBC Continental Americas title belts against Bonsante (29-8-2, 17 KOs), the reigning IBA Americas and Minnesota State middleweight title-holder.
Lorenzo (22-0, 14 KOs), born in the Dominican Republic and now fighting out of Washington Heights in New York City, is rated No. 7 by the WBC and No. 11 by the WBA. He represented his native country in the 2000 Olympics and is the Dominican Republic middleweight champion. His most notable victories to date have been against Archak TerMeliksetian and Canadian champion Bryon Mackie.
Upset-minded Kamya (15-6, 4 KOs), trained by former world champion Johnny Bumphus, is the former WBC Continental Americas light middleweight champion. The Ugandan, now living in Palm Beach (FL), stunned Alex Bunema in 2005 and he also has been in tough against the likes of Joel Julio and Kofi Jantuah.
"We're very happy that Giovanni Lorenzo has signed to fight Kamya on this card," Irish Ropes president Eddie McLoughlin said. "Not only is he a very popular fighter in New York City, Lorenzo opens up the Latino market, especially in the Dominican, for our pay-per-view broadcast. He's also a potential opponent for Duddy down the road."
Also fighting "Erin Go Brawl" is 2004 Irish Olympian middleweight Andy Lee (7-0, 4 KOs), world-rated super featherweight Maureen "The Real Million Dollar Baby" Shea (9-0, 4 KOs), the unbeaten Clancy brothers - heavyweight James (9-0, 1 KO) and cruiserweight Mark (6-0-1, 1 KO) - from Clare, Ireland and now fighting out of Boston, 2004 Irish National Senior amateur champion Henry Coyle in his pro debut and welterweight Martin Wright (2-0-1, 2 KOs), who recently signed a promotional contract with Irish Ropes. All bouts and fighters are subject to change.
Tickets, priced at $400.00, $300.00, $200.00, $150.00, $100.00, $75.00 and $50.00, may be purchased at the Garden Box Office, thegarden.com, or by calling TicketMaster at 212.307.7171. All tickets include a $4.50 facility fee and TicketMaster orders are subject to TicketMaster service charge. For more information about "Erin Go Brawl" call Irish Ropes Promotions at 212.835.1582 or going on line to www.irishropes.com.
Can anyone stop Chad Dawson & Mayweather?
TUE, February 6 - Undefeated "Bad" Chad Dawson, the newly-minted World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion, and his trainer Floyd Mayweather, Sr., established themselves as the ticket to beat for "Fighter of the Year" and "Trainer of the Year," respectively, and we are just four weeks into 2007.
Dawson (23-0, 15 KOs), from New Haven, CT, put a cold blooded beatdown on Tomasz Adamek (31-1, 21 KOs), last Saturday, ending the previously undefeated champion's 21-month reign. The world title fight was broadcast live last Saturday on SHOWTIME Championship Boxing from the Silver Spurs Arena at Osceola Park in Kissimmee, Fla. (see below for replay schedule)
"It was a Conn job!" exclaimed trainer Mayweather. "A Billy Conn job. I have polished the roughest diamond in boxing and transformed, "Bad" Chad Dawson into the crown jewel of the light heavyweight division. He's Conn, Archie Moore and Bobby Foster all rolled up in one. All he needed was the right jeweler to bring out his brilliance and that jeweler was ME! If I had him a year sooner, he would have been world champion a year sooner."
Dawson's promoter, Gary Shaw, agreed, "He went from 'Bad' Chad to 'Awesome' Dawson. He is the Ruler at 175 pounds and is willing to give Tarver the opportunity to get the most prized WBC belt, the crown he once wore for a minute or two, unless he wants one of those paper Burger King Crowns. Let's hope Tarver learned one thing from being in 'Rocky Balboa' -- how to act like a fighter."
Dawson, still celebrating his world title victory, gave notice to the division the best is yet to come.
"Tell Tarver, Jones, Hopkins, Woods, and any of the other title holders that they can have it their way," said Dawson. "I'm not standing on ceremony. I love to travel and my calendar is clear. Name the day and the place and if the money is there, then my belt and I will be too. I have a trainer with a lot of poetry to recite about me and I'm not about to waste one verse!"
Cardona gets dream fight against Judah
TUE, February 6 - When Israel "Pito" Cardona came out of his 3 1/2-year retirement last year, he dreamed of getting an opportunity for a high-profile fight like the one he just signed against former 5-time world champion Zab Judah on April 27 in Southaven, Mississippi.
Born and raised in Hartford (CT), "Pito" won his first 24 pro fights, 18 by knockout, including an IBO super featherweight winning performance against Jeff Mayweather. He later defeated Steve Larrimore for the IBO light welterweight crown.
In 1997, "Pito" stopped "Mighty" Ivan Robinson (23-1) in the third round for their USBA lightweight title and three fights later, Robinson beat Arturo Gatti for the first of two times in their 1998 Ring Magazine Fight of the Year.
After his win against Robinson, Cardona extended his win streak to six, including four USBA title defenses against Sam Girard, Richard Kiley, Golden Johnson, which was also fought for the NABF belt, and Joel Perez. In his only major world title fight, Cardona lost a 12-round decision to undefeated Paul Spadafora (26-0) for the vacant IBF lightweight championship in 1999.
Cardona, frustrated by boxing politics, retired in mid-2002 at the age of 27 with a 34-6 record. He returned to the ring last year with a new manager, Bret Hallenbeck, and new trainer, John Scully. His comeback fight was a first-round TKO of Bobby McAndrews and his last outing (Sept. 23, 2006) resulted in a third-round TKO of intra-state rival Shakha Moore.
Securing fights was difficult this past year because Cardona, sporting a great record and invaluable experience, was considered by many to be too risky of an opponent. Cardona's promoter, Jimmy Burchfield, and Hallenbeck made the Judah-Cardona fight a reality, however, working with Judah's new promoter, Prize Fight Promotions.
"I'm very excited," Cardona said. "I know I'm taking a big chance. I'm fighting a former world champion; he's Zab Judah! I could have continued doing what I've been doing, waiting around for fights and hoping for a break, or jump right into a fight like this where a win will get me right back into the top 10. Hey, I only have a few years left and we decided to make the most out of this fight. I've got the right team behind me now and I have three months to get ready."
Cardona works nights as a lieutenant for a security company in Hartford, as well as a boxing trainer at LA Boxing in Hartford.
"This is a great opportunity and we thank Judah's team for accepting 'Pito' as his opponent," Hallenbeck added. "This is why 'Pito' came out of retirement, a chance like this against a great fighter like Judah. We'll all find out what 'Pito' has left."
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