This Friday night, Star Boxing and ESPN “Friday Night Fights” return to the beautiful Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT with an action-packed six bout card. Opening up the ESPN telecast will be Providence, Rhode Island’s 2007 Amateur World Champion, and 2008 US Olympian, Demetrius Andrade (12-0, 8KO’s) as he looks to continue on his quest for a world championship when he meets Omar Bell (8-1, 5KO’s) in an eight round jr. middleweight contest. In the main event, all action jr. welterweights collide when Bayan “The Mongolian Mongoose” Jargal (15-1-3, 10KO’s) meets “Khanqueror” Breidis Prescott (23-2, 19KO’s) in a ten round jr. welterweight showdown.
Also seeing action on the card, will be up and coming heavyweight prospect, Joe “The Future” Hanks (15-0, 10KO’s) as he looks to impress in his first bout since signing with Star Boxing when he takes on New Jersey’s tough, Terrell “The Baby Bull” Nelson (8-11, 5KO’s) in a six round heavyweight special attraction. Hanks has easily defeated the first fifteen opponents he has faced and has some boxing insiders talking as though he could be the next top American heavyweight.
Making his much anticipated pro-debut on the card will be Kevin Rooney Jr. as he takes on Philadelphia’s David Navarro in a four round jr. middleweight contest. Rooney Jr., the son of famed trainer Kevin Rooney Sr., will make his debut under the watchful eye of father Rooney, who is serving as his head trainer and manager, but also will undoubtedly be watched closely by the working staff of Star Boxing. Rooney Jr. has been the full-time publicist for Star Boxing since 2008. After his bout with Navarro Rooney will have to rush back to the dressing room to get changed to be back out performing his Public Relations duties for Star for the remainder of that evening’s bouts.
In a battle of unbeaten middleweights Providence, Rhode Island’s Thomas Falowo (2-0, 2KO’s) squares off against Derrick Evans (1-0, 1KO) over four scheduled rounds. Falowo is coming off a 4th round TKO in his last bout in February, which also took place at Mohegan Sun.
Rounding out the card is Yonkers, New York’s, Nick Lavin (1-0, 1KO) as he takes on pro-debuting Kevin Cobbs in a four round cruiserweight match-up.
First bout is scheduled for 7:30PM. ESPN2 begins live coverage at 8PM ET. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 1 (800) 745-3000 or visiting www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets can also be purchased by calling the Star Boxing office at (718) 823-2000 or visiting www.starboxing.com. Tickets are also available for purchase at the Mohegan Sun Box Office. Tickets are priced at $80, $50 and $35. ESPN will begin live coverage of the event starting at 8PM ET.
McAleese vs. Lowe on 4/30
Newmarket’s Light Middleweight prospect ‘Phat’ Pat McAleese gets a ‘home’ fight on Saturday 30th April when he headlines the Graham Earl-TKO Boxing Gym co-promoted ‘Return Of The Mac’ event at Tattersalls Sales Rooms in Newmarket, Suffolk.
McAleese’s opponent on the 30th April is AA Lowe, from Newark, Nottinghamshire, who recently unsuccessfully challenged for the BBBofC Midlands Area Light Middleweight title.
The Newmarket outing comes fast on the heels of a truly scintillating performance by McAleese, that see him take a shut out points victory over Spain’s Fran Gonzalez at the ‘Essex Eruption’ event in Dagenham, Essex in mid-March.
There was no feeling out period, both protagonists went to work right from the opening bell. The action was nonstop and produced some of the best pure boxing of the show. For the full three minutes they matched each other punch for punch, it was that close throughout.
Round two see McAleese step things up to try and wrestle control of the round from the gutsy Spaniard. However Gonzalez had no intention to allow him to do so and countered every attack.
Round three see more of the same at first, but the tide was beginning to turn in McAleese’s favour around the two minute mark. McAleese added more venom to his attacks, in doing so forcing Gonzalez to go on the defensive.
Round four see McAleese continue in the same vein, often backing Gonzalez onto the ropes before letting rip with heavy flurries of left and rights to body and head. During one of the later attacks McAleese caught the Spaniard with a heavy left to the ribs, Gonzalez was clearly hurting and covered up. This encouraged McAleese to turn the pressure up another notch. McAleese was relentless playing Gonzalez’s ribs like a xylophone with wickedly fast ten-twelve punch salvos.
Round five was a cracking round for McAleese, who constantly backed up the tiring Gonzalez before letting rip with ten punch plus flurries. As the round progressed Gonzalez occasionally responded with the odd counter attack, but was often thwarted by the fast hands of the Newmarket man.
A sure fire stoppage finish looked on the cards in the final round, as again McAleese caught Gonzalez with a massive left to the ribs. However the durable Gonzalez survived the follow up salvos and went defensive to see out the final couple of minutes. The referee scored the bout 60-54 in favour of a delighted McAleese.
Following a training session, with co-trainer Brian O’Shaughnessy at the TKO Boxing Gym in London, McAleese spoke briefly on the upcoming showdown with Lowe. “Yeah, I’m fighting AA Lowe, just found that out and I don’t know a lot about him yet and I’ll look him up on the internet.
I’m doing everything I need to do in the gym to make sure I’m fit enough and that.
Sparring and everything’s going well. There’s only a couple of weeks to go and I can’t wait to go in the ring in front of the Newmarket crowd. It’s been over a year since I fought there so well due the return.
I sell a lot of tickets in Newmarket, It’s good to do a home fight, I have great fans they follow me wherever I fight so it’s nice that they don’t have to travel. It’s always a great night and it boosts my publicity in Newmarket.
Before the end of the year I want a belt. I want to be a champion, that’s my goal. It’s down to Johnny (Eames) and the team to get it on, I’m sure they will.
The fight on the thirtieth I’m just going to fight my fight, learn from it, to ready myself for a championship ten or twelve rounder in the near future.
I would have liked to have had the trilogy fight with Lee Noble for the Masters title but he’s already said he’s not having any of that again. Think he knew I had beaten him well for eight rounds and that it was a lucky punch that put me down.
Ryan Toms is fighting for the Southern Area, if he wins that I’m more than happy to fight Ryan Toms for the title. Take it off him no problem.
I really appreciate all the support from my fans, they always come out and support the local lad. They come out and never let me down and I’m sure they wont this time.”
‘Phat’ Pat McAleese versus AA Lowe headlines the Graham Earl, in association with Johnny Eames’ TKO Boxing Gym, promoted ‘Return Of The Mac’ Event at Tattersalls Sales Rooms in Newmarket, Suffolk on Saturday 30th April 2011.
Heading up the support for McAleese-Lowe headline bout sees McAleese’s TKO Boxing Gym mate Ian Bailey in his first fight of the year.
The seriously tough Super Bantamweight campaigner from Slough in Berkshire will be in action against Mansfield based Latvian Pavels Senkovs, who was in action at the weekend against Tasif Khan on the undercard of the Amir Khan-Paul McClosky WBA Super Lightweight title clash.
Also on the show is another of McAleese’s TKO Gym mates, Cheshunt’s exciting, unbeaten in seven, Welterweight Bobby Gladman, who takes on the highly experienced Matt Scriven from Nottingham.
Ipswich Super Middleweight debutante Henry Bacon gets his first professional outing against New Milton, Hampshire’s ‘Dangerous’ Danny Goode.
Further bouts are expected to be announced later this week.
Tickets for the Graham Earl, in association with TKO Boxing Gym, Promoted ‘Return Of The Mac’ event at the Tattersalls Sales Rooms in Newmarket on Saturday 30th April 2011 are now on sale and priced £30 (Unreserved) or £50 (Ringside).
For tickets call: 07960 850645, book on-line at www.tkoboxoffice.com or call in person at The TKO Boxing Gym, Gillian House, Stephenson Street, Canning Town, London E16 4SA.
Aaron Garcia: “If They Think I am Test, They Have Another Thing Coming”
After earning a majority decision over Alejandro Lopez (20-2, 7KOs) following a two year hiatus from the sport last February, San Marcos, CA featherweight Aaron Garcia (10-1-2, 2KOs) is in high demand to test up and coming southern California prospects like Abraham “Chamaco” Lopez (13-0, 10KOs) in an eight rounder on Friday, April 29th, in Ontario, CA. The difference is, Garcia is not ready to be the stepping stone.
“If they think I am a test for him, they have another thing coming,” Garcia said after an intense session at the Alliance Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. “I am hungry, I am a reborn Aaron Garcia. I have a whole new team around me and I am going to show these people who Aaron Garcia really is come April 29th.”
After putting together one of the most decorated amateur careers in recent years where he beat the likes of Vicente Escobedo, Francisco “Panchito” Bojado, Rocky Juarez and Brandon Rios among others, Garcia was a top prospect who went pro under the Golden Boy Promotions banner in ’04. As a result, Garcia knows where Lopez stands in his career, “I have been there, done that, I know exactly where he is at and the pressure is on him to perform.”
Vince Parra, Garcia’s manager and trainer, knows that Garcia’s next assignment is not an easy one but with his fighter’s new found excitement for the sport, he will be more than ready to pull off the upset.
“Its a tough fight but I see a lot of skill in Aaron. Lopez is a tough fighter, undefeated, great amateur background but I see some things that we will capitalize on,” Parra said. “Expect to see ring generalship and a man technically take another man apart with skill.”
“You are going to see a world class featherweight. You are going to see a real exciting Aaron Garcia and a kid in Abraham Lopez way over his head, no disrespect to him, he is a tough kid. On April 29th he is going to be in there with to me, one of the top featherweights in the world, he has just been away for a while.”
The Garcia-Lopez eight round featherweight bout will be part of Thompson Boxing Promotions’ “New Blood” Series on Friday, April 29th at the DoubleTree Hotel in Ontario, CA.