Art Pelullo/Banner Promotions, Bobby Hitz/Hitz Boxing, Joe DeGuardia/Star Boxing, and Prizefight Promotions will present a sensational fight card on Friday, August 19, 2011, at the Horseshoe Casino, located at 777 Casino Center Drive in Hammond, Indiana. The main event, co-featured bout, and other selected fights will be televised live on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes – ESPN’s Spanish-language network – and ESPN3.com, the network’s broadband platform service. It is the final fight card of ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” 2011 season.
In the main event, scheduled for 10 rounds in the junior middleweight division, former two-time world amateur champion and 2008 U.S. Olympian Demetrius Andrade, 13-0 with 9 knockouts, of Providence, Rhode Island, will step up in class against his most accomplished and dangerous opponent yet as a pro – veteran Grady Brewer, 28-12 with 16 knockouts, of Lawton, Oklahoma.
Promoter Art Pelullo said, “Demetrius has practically grown up as a pro on ESPN. We think he’s the top young prospect in boxing and a future world champion, and it’s fitting that his first big test as a pro and in his first 10 rounder be on ESPN Friday Night Fights finally for 2011. Grady Brewer is a very dangerous fighter who has real ability as a puncher and the tenacity that is needed to win big fights. He proved that in his last fight when he knocked out undefeated prospect Fernando Guerrero.”
Doug Loughrey, Director for Programming & Acquisitions at ESPN said, “We are proud to have this bout as the 2011 FNF season finale main event. It will be an interesting contest as Demetrius is stepping up with Grady Brewer as an opponent. We have seen both fighters this year on our network of platforms and we are confident this televised card will continue to deliver excitement for our boxing audiences.”
Andrade, 23 years old, finished his impressive amateur career representing the United States in the 2008 Olympics. He was also a gold medalist at the 2007 World Championships in Chicago, the 2005 and 2006 U.S. National Championships, and the 2006 and 2007 National Golden Gloves Championships, among many others. A pro now for over two and a half years, he has stayed active in the ring and made good progress, and feels that he’s ready for the next level of competition.
Brewer, an 11-year pro, won the 2006 season of the reality series, “The Contender.” He has derailed the progress of up-and-coming prospects more than once – Brewer is coming off a fourth-round TKO win against previously unbeaten prospect Fernando Guerrero (21-0 at the time) in his last fight on June 17, and he TKO’d previously undefeated Anthony Thompson (15-0 at the time) in February, 2004. Brewer also has to his credit wins against current IBF junior middleweight world champion Cornelius “K9” Bundrage (W10, Nov. 2008), and former International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior lightweight world champion Steve Forbes (W10, Sept. 2006).
The co-featured bout, scheduled for 10 rounds in the lightweight division, could stand as a main event on its own – former World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight world champion David Diaz, 36-3-1 with 17 knockouts, of Chicago, will battle rising contender “Hammerin’” Hank Lundy, 20-1-1 with 10 knockouts, of Philadelphia.
Diaz was born and raised in Chicago, and is a local hero. A 1996 U.S. Olympian, he won the WBC title in August, 2006, and made a successful title defense against Mexican legend Erik Morales at the Allstate Arena a year later. Lundy is coming off an exciting 10-round decision win against former two-time Venezuelan Olympian Patrick Lopez in his last fight on April 1.
More exciting fights will be announced. All bouts subject to change without notice.
Doors open at: 6:00 P.M. (all times Central time)
First fight at: 7:00 P.M.
Tickets prices: $90 Ringside, $40 Orchestra (main level), $30 Mezzanine (balcony).
Tickets available at: www.fanfueled.com and www.thevenue-chicago.com.
Prospect Boxing: Stranraer’s Paul Allison training hard for September 10th with sparring at Belfast’s famous Breen Gym!
With the professional boxing season starting at the end of August, last seasons most exciting newcomer; Paul Allison is training three times a day, in preparation for his next contest at Ayr Town Hall on September 10th. The twenty one year old, from Stranraer, scored five wins in as many outing since turning professional with Paul Graham’s Prospect Boxing management and promotional company in November 2010.
Allison boxed over 50 amateur contests, however, his aggressive crowd pleasing style was never conducive to the computer point scoring amateur system. Nonetheless, he left his mark in winning the Western District title and represent the district in Jersey. Paul has never shirked an opponent, beating former ABA champion Trevor Crew in his own backyard, and running current champ, Repton’s Frank Buglioni, close in an international in Edinburgh. Paul, was never stopped as an amateur, his never say die attitude and willingness to fight at the last minute made him a matchmakers dream. As the first boxer from Stranraer for thirty years, he sold out every club show himself, often attracting over five hundred people.
Such is determination to establish himself as professional; he now boards the ferry twice a week to spar in Belfast at John Breen’s gym. Thus, training alongside; Paul McCoskey, Neil Sinclair and current Irish champ Stephen Haughian. Back in Stranraer, Paul’s head coach and chief-second, is his old amateur trainer Jamsey Hilton. The migrant Glaswegian gives manager Paul Graham essential information when making matches for Allison.
The character of this light-middleweight prospect, was never highlighted more then when he boxed at Ravenscraig, in May, just over a week following the death of his father James.
Jimmy Allison, had brought his teenage son to Jamsey Hilton’s, club, and recorded each of his amateur contests with his trusty camcorder. If Paul continues to show the same progress and adaptability as last season, he will force himself into contention for the Scottish title. With this in mind Paul Graham is currently seeking an important learning contest for Allison outing at Ayr Town Hall on September 10th.
Prospect Boxing are proud to announce there first show of the new season at Ayr Town Hall on 10th September. Tickets are available from Paul Graham 01698 338888 or Ayr Town Hall 01292 269793. Further details avail from http://www.prospectboxing.co.uk/index.html and Prospect-Boxing Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prospect-Boxing/208247569205243
Bam on boxing
I remember going to a fight at the Legendary Blue Horizon with my dad about five or six years ago and thinking that I wanted to work there. In September of 2009, I went to the Blue and asked for an internship. I knew it was going to be a long shot but I got what I wanted.
Boxing veterans remember fights at the Blue Horizon from the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. From what I have heard and read, there were some great times, but I never experienced those times. I experienced the Blue Horizon in a different way.
I “got my feet wet” in that building and it was amazing. I loved being a part of the only true fight venue left in Philadelphia. The balcony seats practically hung over the ring. I would have traded sitting inside the ringside rails at the Legendary Blue Horizon for the first couple rows of balcony seats on the north and south sides.
The first time I worked a fight it was not a Blue Horizon promotion—it was a Peltz Boxing promotion. I remember being on the north balcony helping people find their seats and just stopping for a moment to take everything in. Ever since I was a kid I knew Teon-Kennedy-vsboxing was my passion. I knew I could never fight because it was against my father’s wishes, so I found another angle to get involved.
The first fight I worked at the Blue was the USBA super bantamweight title fight between Teon Kennedy, of Philadelphia, and Francisco Rodriguez, of Chicago. I remember watching the main event fight with another student and telling her: “Kennedy was too strong for Rodriguez.” My first time at work that evening turned out to be a tragedy, but it didn’t stop me from going back.
The Blue Horizon was not just the legendary fight arena on Broad Street to me. It’s where I figured out what career path I wanted. It was where I met Bobby Boogaloo Watts, Stanley Kitten Hayward, Randall Tex Cobb and many others. I didn’t just meet faces of the past. I met people currently involved with the business as well as up-and-coming fighters, one who became friend of mine and one of the best people I know, Steve Upsher-Chambers.
The first card I worked with Blue Horizon Promotions was different. It was the Steve Upsher Chambers vs. Doel Carrasquillo fight in December, 2009. Working with Ms. Vernoca Michael and Don Elbaum got me educated about the fight game and the process of putting together a card. I learned a lot working there and I will never forget it.
No matter how big the venue was, how scary the basement was, how empty it was on a daily basis, I always felt at home. I didn’t know walking into the building on June 4, 2010, would be the last fight I would ever work there. I knew the end was coming but I did not know it was that night. I remember going to work the following week and Ms. Michael was beginning to clean out the building. All of the pictures in her office had been removed from the walls and the gloves from the cabinet were packed up. The venue felt more than empty–it didn’t feel like home anymore.
I was extremely sad to see the building go. I had hopes of someone buying it and re-starting it. It breaks my heart knowing that the venue will no longer be used as a fight arena. Mosaic Development Partners recently purchased the building and are looking to turn the fight venue into restaurant and hotel. Not something I look forward to! What will happen with the balcony seating, the cathedral style ceiling, the lighting, just everything that made the venue a true fight venue?
I hate to be the one to say it, but no one can change what is already done. I like to try to put a positive spin on things; maybe it’s time for a change. When Eagles fans think Eagles, they think Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson and the Linc (Lincoln Financial Field), but they remember the nose-bleed seating at the Vet and Randall Cunningham and Ron Jaworski. The older ones remember Franklin Field with Norm Van Brocklin, Chuck Bednarik and Tommy McDonald.
I have never been one to dwell on the past and change sometimes can be a good thing. There is still the Asylum Arena in South Philadelphia and the National Guard Armory in the Northeast. Who knows, maybe there’s another great venue hidden in a pocket somewhere throughout the city. Philly has a great crop of fighters now and it’s time to make boxing history somewhere else.
Many people have voiced their opinions about the Legendary Blue Horizon, the owners and how the quality of fights has changed over the years. More often than not people have negative comments, but for me that building gave me an experience of a lifetime.
The author is a senior in sport and recreation management at Temple University. She joined Peltz Boxing as an intern. Follow Peltz Boxing on twitter @PeltzBoxing and our intern @bamonboxing