Next Wednesday, DiBella Entertainment’s Broadway Boxing series heads back north to the suburbs of Westchester County for the third time in a little over a year. The exciting eight-bout card is scheduled to take place at the beautiful Hilton Westchester in Rye Brook, NY. Headlining the event will be Westchester’s popular junior lightweight prospect Bryant “Peewee” Cruz (16-1, 8KO’s). Also on the card will be the highly regarded undefeated cruiserweight Steve Bujaj (14-0-1, 9KO’s). Both bouts are scheduled for eight rounds.
The bout on April 20th will be Cruz’ first since suffering his lone loss as a professional, back in December of last year. In Cruz’ ShoBox debut, he took on late replacement Dardan Zenunaj, a once-beaten, world-rated contender. Cruz got off to a very quick start, setting an extremely high pace, and sweeping all of the early rounds. The hard-charging Zenunaj kept the pressure on all night long though, and the bout turned into a war during the middle rounds. After dropping Cruz with a barrage of punches near the end of the seventh, Cruz’ corner elected to halt the contest between frames. Cruz took the fight as a learning experience and is looking to get back to his winning ways behind a hometown partisan crowd when he steps into the ring next Wednesday night.
Born in Albania, Bujaj relocated to Bronx, NY, at an early age. One of the more popular fighters throughout the local New York fight scene, Bujaj, who just recently relocated to nearby Yonkers, NY, was a two-time NY Golden Gloves champion before successfully turning pro in 2010. The lone blemish on Bujaj’s record is a split decision draw to fellow contender and recent IBO world title challenger Junior Wright in May 2015. During the bout with Wright, Bujaj suffered a broken jaw. He has since reeled off back-to-back victories following surgery to repair his jaw, and is determined to impress as he continues his ascent up the rankings of the cruiserweight division.
There are a number of other exciting bouts on the card, including world-rated contender Billel Dib (18-1) making his U.S. debut, and red-hot undefeated prospect Alantez Fox (18-0-1) in separate eight-round bouts. Also on the card will be former Irish National champion Noel Murphy (5-0), now living and training in Yonkers, NY, as well as fellow undefeated New Yorkers Wessley Ferrer (10-0), Joseph Williams (8-0) and Andy Meijas (15-0).
A complete list of the card, including opponents will be announced shortly.
