SANTO DOMINGO (Febraury 16, 2007) – “Boxing At The Coliseum,” a professional boxing series showcasing Dominican Republic prospects, commences February 24 at the Carlos “Teo” Cruz Coliseum in Santo Domingo. The boxing card will be immediately followed by a concert featuring local performers. The headliner, however, finds Mexican super featherweight world title contender Guadalupe “Bronco” Rosales fighting Dominican native Elvis Martinez in the 10-round main event..
Rosales (22-1, 13 KOs), rated No. 4 by the World Boxing Council and No. 12 by the World Boxing Organization, is the reigning Mexican and Mundo Hispano super featherweight champion.
Guzman Entertainment, Inc. is presenting “Boxing At The Coliseum” in association with local promoters. “This series is to promote the best and hottest young prospects in the Dominican Republic,” promoter Joe Guzman said, “and to attract some of the island’s great young athletes into boxing. Baseball is huge in the Dominican Republic but we’ve scheduled our series to run in between the end and start of the baseball season here. Our second show is scheduled April 14, followed by more fights in June and July.
“I see another vision for boxing in the Dominican Republic. Sammy Sosa was an amateur boxer. Imagine if he had concentrated on boxing instead of baseball? Maybe he’d be the heavyweight champion of the world. There are a lot of great athletes here. We will discover hidden gems in our series, hopefully, more fighters like the great (27-0, WBO super featherweight champion) Joan Guzman. We’re excited one of the top boxers in the world is headlining our card, ‘Bronco’ Rosales, who is staying busy and shooting for a big fight in a few months against a top 10 contender.”
Some of those hidden gems Guzman spoke about may be three fighters on the February 24th show: 13-0 (9 KOs) junior welterweight Eury Gonzalez, 10-0 (8 KOs) middleweight Juan Ubaldo Cabrera and 5-0 (3 KOs) Wilson Santana. “Fighters need work,” Guzman added. “We’re going to give them the opportunity to fight often and get the exposure and experience needed for them to get to the next level in boxing. I have a different concept that doesn’t include signing fighters to promotional contracts. I’m working with other promoters who are putting their fighters on our show. With the concert following boxing, people will get a 2-for-1 deal on events. We know boxing fans here will come to the show, so we’ve targeted sports fans, especially of baseball, to crossover and get them interested in boxing, as well as families and couples for an evening of great entertainment for a very reasonable price.”
Gonzales faces Jhovanny Ascencio in the six-round co-feature. On the undercard in six-round bouts is Cabrera vs. Edmando Medrino, junior featherweight Joe Parra (5-2, 1 KO) vs. Carlos Fulgencio (5-0 2 KOs), and Santana vs. Puerto Rican prospect Julio Carcia (1-0, 1KO). Also scheduled to fight in four-round matches is junior welterweight Anthony Lora (1-0) vs. Ramon Martinez (0-1), as well as featherweight Joselito Collado (1-0, 1 KO), fighting out of Queens (NY), vs. Giovenne Domingo Duran making his pro debut. All bouts and fighters are subject to change.
The 7,000-seat, two-leveled Carlos “Teo” Cruz Coliseum, constructed 1996 by the Dominican government solely for boxing, has a theater-in-the-round design with no virtually poor viewing areas.
Invited special guests include Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernadez, New York Mets star pitcher Pedro Martinez and former world light heavyweight champion Jose “Chiqui” Torres.
Tickets, priced at $5.00 (general admission), $10.00 (second tier seating), $20.00 (reserved) and $33.00 (VIP), are available by going on line at www.ticketexpress.com.do.