After spending almost 3 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, undefeated light heavyweight prospect Yathomas Riley will return to battle on Saturday, May 11 against Buffalo, New York’s Lionell Thompson at The Paramount in Huntington, New York it was announced today by Joe DeGuardia, President of Star Boxing.
Sporting a record of 8-0-0 with six knockouts, the hard-hitting southpaw enters the eight round co-main event at “ROCKIN FIGHTS 8” following a prolonged legal battle that saw him holed up in a Florida jail after being wrongly accused of attempted murder in the South Florida town of Homestead.
“I’m very excited to get back in the ring on May11” said Riley. “This has obviously been a very trying time for me dealing with the false accusations and not fighting for the last three years.”
“But my goal is a World Championship, nothing less just like it always has been. This fight against Thompson gets me back on that track” continued Riley. “I didn’t want an easy fight, I wanted to get right back in the mix.”
Prior to the false allegations and his subsequent incarceration for over two years, Riley had won three successive bouts by stoppage, all inside of two rounds.
“It was a very unfortunate situation what happened to Yathomas, he was a very impressive light heavyweight prospect,” said DeGuardia. “Coming back he said he wasn’t interested in a tune up, he wanted a real solid guy and Thompson certainly fits the bill.”
The 27-year-old Thompson, 13-2-0 (9KO’s), is coming off a second round knockout of perennial contender Chuck Mussachio on FEBRUARY 23 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Last year Thompson traveled to Quebec, Canada on MAY 19 to challenge world ranked contender Nicholson Poulard, losing a very close, ten round split decision to the hometown favorite.
