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By: Ken Hissner
Philly’s unbeaten bantamweight Christian Carto was a National Golden Gloves champion. He decided to turn professional on July 2nd 2016 at the Santander Arena in Reading, PA, on a Kings Promotion. He was just 19 and being trained by Mickey Rosati, a former PA Golden Gloves Champion and owner of Rosati’s Gym which is located at 1937 S. Chadwick St., in South Philadelphia over his Rosati’s Auto Repair shop. His father Mickey Sr. was 11-1 from 1954-55.
Christian Carto has a 13-0 record with 11 knockouts. The two of them have “South Philly” written all over them. Carto turned 21 last December and will be headlining Friday at the SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia against Detroit’s James “O.G.” Smith, 12-1 (7), coming off a first round knockout win and promoted by Dmitriy Salita.
Carto stopped his first eleven opponents. One story Rosati tells is during the referee’s instructions on a particular fight the opposing trainer said “you have been fighting boy’s, tonight you are fighting a man!”
Before you knew it the “man” was face down in his own corner and Carto who is a young man of few words pointed to the trainer and was said to say “there’s your man!” Carto won’t talk about it for he is a very confident but humble boxer.
Philly is minus and world champions at present but there are a young group of boxers than have champion written all over them and Carto is one of them! His brother Frank who was a novice champion handles the managing of who his brother fights. They have been fighting for two promoters and it looks like Marshall Kauffman’s Kings Promotions has taken over putting young Carto in the main event Friday at the SugarHouse Casino.
“Camp has been good. I have done a lot of sparring with different sparring partners,” said Carto. As stopping his first eleven opponents in September he defeated Alfonso Melendez, 14-1 and in his last fight in December defeated Luis Fernando Saavedra, 7-3, both going eight rounds.
“It would have been nice to have kept the streak going, but I am not upset. I actually thought in my last fight with Luis Saavedra I was close to getting him out of there but he did a good job in hanging in there and going the distance. It was a good experience going eight-rounds. I spar 10-12 rounds so I knew I could go eight rounds,” said Carto.
This will be Carto’s seventh appearance at SugarHouse Casino, and the venue has taken a liking to Carto to the point that a 40-foot billboard was erected over I-95, and a million motorists can see Carto each day.
“Smith seems to be a good fighter. I have watched a couple of his fights, and even in the fight he lost, he fought well until he got caught,” said Carto.
This writer has seen all his fights and can honestly say “Carto is the real deal and one of if not the most exciting young boxer in Philly rings today”.
“I want to thank Wendy Hamilton of the SugarHouse. It was good to see the billboard and see myself presented like that. It’s very exciting to see that. That is something I never thought I’d see. I just want all my fans to come out Friday night. It’s going to be a good fight, and I look forward to seeing everybody there,” said Carto.
Ten of his thirteen fights have been in Philly with two in Atlantic City and as mentioned his debut in Reading. There will be six additional fights on the undercard with several Philly against Philly bouts and you know they will be wars!
Super middleweight Christopher Brooker, 12-5 (5), takes on Jamaal “Tyson” Davis, 16-12-1 (7), in an 8 round all-Philly match-up. The son of former world contender Philly’s Tyrone “Butterfly” Crawley who will be in the corner in Tyrone Crawley, 7-0 (0), taking on Anthony Mercado, 10-3 (9), of Arecibo, PR, in a Super lightweight 8. Philly’s David Gonzales, 8-2-2 (2), takes on Victor Vazquez, 9-3 (3), of Yonkers, NY.
Vazquez is 3-0 fighting in Philly defeating Philly boxers Anthony Burgin, Jerome Conquest and Seifullah Jihad Wise.
In addition there will be three 4 rounder’s. In an all Philly welterweight fight Rasheed Johnson, 3-1 (1), takes on Vincent Floyd, 3-4-1 (2). Philly Super Flyweight Jerrod Miner, 1-1 (1), takes on Rondarius Hunter, 1-2 (1), of Atlanta, GA. Philly Heavyweight Dominique Mayfield makes his debut taking on Ronny Hale, 3-11 (3), of Austin, TX.
There will be a press conference Wednesday at SugarHouse Casino at 6pm.
