26.09 - Buffalo's undefeated heavyweight, "Baby Joe" Mesi, will headline a spectacular "Buffalo Thunder" heavyweight-dominated Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing event on Friday, October 18 in HSBC Arena.
The 28-year-old Mesi, ranked 18 th in the world by the World Boxing Council and third by the North American Boxing Federation, will put his unblemished 23-0 record with 21 knockouts on the line against world-class heavyweight David Izon, 34, 27-4 (23 KOs) in the main event of the nationally televised ESPN2 fight card. Izon is currently in training with his manager, World Light Heavyweight Champion Roy Jones, Jr.. A former top 10 heavyweight (1998-2000), Izon has knocked out "Big" Lou Savarese, Terrance Lewis and Derek Jefferson and has fought David Tua, Michael Grant and Fres Oquendo. Tyson backed out of three scheduled fights with Izon.
In the co-main event, Lawrence Clay-Bey, Mesi's amateur nemesis, who defeated Mesi for the heavyweight spot and became captain of the 1996 United States Olympic team, places his 16-1 (12 KOs) record on the line against Ahmad Hisham Abdin of Syria, who is 30-3-4 (14 KOs), the former WBC Continental Americas champion. Abdin, who is coming off a close 10-round loss to Tim Witherspoon earlier this year, will present a major challenge to Clay-Bey.
There will be five other fights on the card, including a Junior Middleweight bout, featuring undefeated knockout artist, Paul "The Punisher" Williams, whose tremendous reach has helped him to garner a 16-0 (13 KOs) record since his 2000 professional debut.
This will be the first professional boxing event in the six-year-old Buffalo downtown arena, home of NHL's Buffalo Sabres. The arena will have a seating capacity of 20,169 for the event. On April 5, in its first Buffalo event, SRL Boxing featured Mesi in the main event, in which he earned a sixth round technical knockout against Keith McKnight. The card broke attendance records at the University of Buffalo Alumni Arena, before a standing room only crowd of 9,554. In his last fight, on June 7, Mesi knocked out Talmadge Griffis in Arizona.
"David Izon is a great test for Joe," said promoter Sugar Ray Leonard. "Izon is the real deal with knockout wins over Lou Savarese and Derrick Jefferson and a back and forth battle with David Tua. Joe will need to be at 100 percent to beat Izon."
"I am very impressed with the card," Mesi continued. "Obviously David Izon is the level of competition I have wanted for my next fight. He is considered a gatekeeper in the heavyweight division and I know a win over him will elevate me in the world rankings. This is not going to be an easy fight. The night I fought my first professional fight, at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, I watched Izon punish my friend and former sparring partner, Lou Savarese. To also have Lawrence Clay-Bey on the card is going to be very interesting."
"I don't know anything about Joe Mesi except he's unbeaten and I'm fighting him in his own back yard," Izon said. "We have ordered video tapes on him and when we enter the ring, I will know him better than he knows himself." He continued, "I want Oquendo to see a focused David Izon. And I want Tyson, Lewis, Rachman and Klitschko all to know that they still owe me and the next time they will have to go through me, not around me. And I want Joe Mesi to know that when the bell rings, I will try to win as quickly as possible. That's the way I fight. I expect the same from him. Everything's personal from now on."
"I am at my fight weight today and we are still 43 days from the fight," Mesi responded. "I know this will be the biggest fight of my career and with it being in my hometown, I will be ready."
