Opportunity knocked, and “Mr. Providence” answered. With undefeated super middleweight Angel Camacho Jr. sustaining a broken foot, forcing him to withdraw from his upcoming fight against Peter Manfredo Jr., fellow Ocean State veteran Vladine Biosse has answered the call to face Manfredo at Twin River Casino on Friday, May 13th, 2016.
“THE BATTLE FOR THE CAPITAL” between “The Pride of Providence” Manfredo (40-7, 21 KOs) and “Mr. Providence” Biosse (15-7-2, 7 KOs) takes place nearly nine years to the date of Twin River’s professional boxing debut, which occurred May 11th, 2007 and starred Manfredo in a knockout win over Ted Muller.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to go out there and showcase my talent versus his talent,” Biosse said. “It’s an honor to share a ring with a man who I’ve been friends with outside of the ring even before boxing. He’s shown me nothing but love, so to go in there and share a ring with a man like that and compete, it feels good.”
A former track star at Hope High School in Providence and college football standout at the University of Rhode Island, the 33-year-old Biosse rose to stardom on the regional circuit with nationally televised wins over Joey McCreedy and Tim Connors on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.
The affable southpaw became the toast of the town at the age of 29 in 2012 when he dominated fellow Providence native Joey Spina in a breakthrough unanimous decision win at Twin River to earn state bragging rights and capture the then vacant New England Super Middleweight Title.
More than a year later, Biosse put his belt on the line against Rhode Islander Rich Gingras and fought to a controversial draw, his last fight in Rhode Island until July of 2015. Biosse faced a laundry list of talented 168-pounders over the next two years, among them J’Leon Love, undefeated World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver Super Middleweight Champion Callum Smith, Andre Dirrell and Ukrainian standout Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
No stranger to tough fights, Biosse now faces another Rhode Island foe in Manfredo (40-7, 21 KOs), who’s ending a 2 ½-year layoff with his first fight since November of 2013 when he stopped Gingras in the eighth round of a scheduled 10-round fight.
