Tag Archives: HBO Boxing After Dark Preview: Burnett vs. Zhakiyanov

Posted on 05/10/2018

By: Ken Hissner

When will the PA Boxing Director learn you cannot have two boxing events on the same night like he did December 1st? 2300 Arena in South Philly is sold out per Will Ruiz of Hard Hitting Promotions with co-promoter Greg Cohen Promotions Showtime event Friday at Front & Oregon. At SugarHouse Casino Marshall Kauffman’s Kings Promotions are on 1001 Delaware Avenue.

Photo Credit: Devin Haney Twitter Account

The main event at 2300 has Devin “The Dream” Haney, 18-0 (12), of Las Vegas, NV, taking on Mason “Rock Hard Mighty” Menard, 33-2 (24), of Rayne, LA, for the USBA Lightweight Title over 10 rounds. At the Press Conference Wednesday Haney was there but Menard a no show. Doors open at 6:30 and First Bout at 7:15.

Showtime will have four of the eight bouts aired starting at 9pm. The co-feature has Super Bantamweight Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer, Jr., 16-1 (8), taking on Glenn Dezurn, Jr., 9-1-1 (6), of Baltimore, MD, in a 10 round bout
Light Heavyweight Alvin “Iron Majik” Varmall 15-0-1 (12), of Catskill, NY,takes on Charles Foster, 15-0 (8), of New Haven, CT, in a 8 round bout. Super Bantamweight Adam “Mantequilla” Lopez, 16-2-2 (8), of San Antonio, TX, takes on Arnold “Ami” Khegai, 11-0-1 (8), of Odessa, UKR, over 8 rounds. They are the four Showtime bouts.

Four Philadelphia boxers in 6 round bouts will fill out the card with Lightweight southpaw Jeremy “King” Cuevas, 8-0 (6), of Philly, taking on Hector Marengo, 7-11-4 (4), of Arecibo, PR. Lightweight Branden “The Gift” Pizarro, 9-1 (4), of Philly, taking on Israel “Isra” Villela, 6-9 (2), of Cancun, MEX. Light Heavyweight David ‘One-Two” Murray, 7-1-1 (6), of Philly, taking on Craig “Danger” Duncan, 10-1-1 (8), of Apopka, FL. Opening the show will be the return of Milton “El Santo” Santiago, 16-0 (3), of Philly, after 18 months taking on Jorge L Munguia, 13-11 (5), of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

At the press conference were Haney, Greer, Dezurn, Varmall, Lopez, Cuevas, Murray, Duncan and Santiago. “This will be my sixth appearance tying a record on Showtime. Thank God, my team, my dad, Hard Hitting and Greg Cohen. Come Friday I want to show them I’m up there with those at the top,” said Haney. “Thank God, I have a pillow for Dezurn to put him to sleep on,” said Greer. “I want to thank my coach, parents and am looking forward for a great fight and to put another guy to sleep bringing Showtime back to Philly,” said Cuevas.

At the SugarHouse Casino in the main event will be Super Lightweight Mykal “The Professor” Fox, 16-0 (4), of Forestville, MD, taking on Anthony Mercado, 11-3 (10), of Arecibo, PR, over 8 rounds. Eleven Sports will cover the event. There will be seven other bouts with a pair of 6 rounder’s and 6 bouts at 4 rounds.

Returning to the ring after 21 months is “The Fighting Ring Announcer” Super Bantamweight Alex Barbosa, 5-3-1 (1), of Philly. The rest of the undercard has Bantamweight’s Romuel Cruz, Jerrod Miner and Desmond Moore of Philly. Also, Super Featherweight’s Joshafat Ortiz of Reading and Jordan “The Kidd” Peters, of D.C., Heavyweight Michael Polite Coffie, of NY. Lightweight Thomas Mattice, 11-0 (9), of Cleveland, OH, was added this week.

Doors open at 6pm and Starting time for first bout is 7pm.

Posted on 03/08/2018

By: Bryant Romero

This Saturday will be another stacked night of boxing with two competing cards on Showtime and ESPN. Showtime will be presenting two world title fights at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas with Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) looking to capture a fourth world title in a fourth weight class when he challenges IBF Jr. welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets (13-0, 10 KOs) in the main event. Garcia is looking to become just the third fighter in history to capture world titles from 126 pounds to 140 pounds if he is successful in defeating Lipinets this Saturday night.

Garcia is considered by many in boxing to be one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world and will be heavily favored to defeat Lipinets. While Garcia is certainly a very skillful fighter with boxing skills, punching power, and excellent technique, there is still a strong debate on whether Garcia is truly one of best in the world pound for pound. Garcia is a three-weight world champion but with Adrien Broner being his career best win to date, there is much left to be desired in the career of Mikey Garcia.

The 30-year-old Garcia losing two years of his career while he battled his former promoter Top Rank in court didn’t help matters when it came to his rise in the sport. Still, in his three fights back since his hiatus from the sport, he’s reminded the boxing world how good he is, but can he fulfill his career ambition in becoming one of the biggest names in the sport?

Reportedly turning down a Miguel Cotto and Jorge Linares fight to instead fight an unknown but dangerous champion in Sergey Lipinets may not seem like the smartest of business decisions. However, Garcia is happy with the path he’s taking, will look to make history against Sergey Lipinets, and will eventually set his sights on challenging one of the welterweight champions if he is successful this Saturday.

Lipinets will be looking to spoil all of the plans of Mikey Garcia and frankly he feels disrespected with all the talk of Garcia picking up his fourth world title. Lipinets though is very confident of victory and while he may be an unknown champion, he is a good strong fighter with a lot of experience as a kick boxer and has fought very solid opposition in just 13 pro fights as boxer. An argument can be made that Lipinets could be Garcia’s most interesting challenge to date.

On the undercard, features another world title fight in the 140 pound weight class when Rances Barthelemy (26-0, 13 KOs) takes on Kiryl Relihk (21-2, 19 KOs) for the vacant WBA super lightweight title in a rematch of their wild fight last May. The winner of this fight will put themselves in a strong position for a unification bout with the winner of the Garcia vs Lipinets main event.

Posted on 10/20/2017

By: Sean Crose

Saturday’s HBO Boxing After Dark card will showcase bouts from two distinct locations. The main event, which will be broadcast from the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York, will feature Panama’s 22-1 Jezreel Corrales facing San Juan, Puerto Rico’s 18-0 Alberto Machado in a 12-round super featherweight affair. Machado, whose knocked out all but three of his opponents, is hoping to win the WBA World Super Featherweight Title off Corrales, who has only fought in the United States once before. This will be Machado’s first attempt at winning a world title.

Corrales has held his WBA belt since knocking out Takashi Uchiyama back in April of 2016. This will be the Panamanian’s third defense of that belt.

As HBOs Harold Lederman says: “Corrales, the champion, is a bit wild. When you watch him, he throws punches from every angle you can think of.” Yet Lederman gives the edge to Machado due to the fact that the Puerto Rican “boxes beautifully.” Says Lederman: “I think it’s going to give him (Machado) an advantage in this fight.”

Also competing at the Turning Stone that evening will be two time junior middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade, who will be moving up to middleweight to put his 24-0 record up against fellow undefeated fighter Alantez Fox, 23-0-1. HBO describes former Olympian Andrade as having “a deep amateur resume, having won a gold medal at the 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships.” Meanwhile, “the six-foot-four Fox will look to exploit his height advantage over the six-foot-one Andrade.” Rhode Island’s Andrade is hoping to move successfully onto the next phase of his career, while Maryland’s Fox is looking to shock the world.

HBO will start it’s program on Saturday with a replay of the Ryan Burnett-Zhanat Zhakiyanov 12 round bantamweight unifier, which will have gone down earlier in the day at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Burnett, the undefeated 17-0 local, will have hoped to defend his IBF World Bantamweight Title while gaining Zhakiyanov’s WBA Super World Bantamweight Title strap. With a record of 27-1, Zhakiyanov “has compiled a 22-bout win streak since his only ring loss.” And that loss was back in 2008 against Sakhib Usarov – ancient history career-wise for a contemporary fighter. As for Burnett, the 25 year old fought as recently as last June, when he bested Lee Haskins via unanimous decision at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena. The fight will be HBO’s maiden voyage for covering bouts from Northern Ireland.