Tickets for the Saturday, July 27 Fists of Gold II event are on sale now. The exciting, multi-bout event at The Venetian Macau’s CotaiArena features two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time Amateur World Champion Zou Shiming returning to the ring in a flyweight matchup against Mexico’s Jesus Ortega.
The fight card also features two world championship title fights – WBO/WBA flyweight champion Juan Estrada vs. Milan Melindo and IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich vs. Mauricio Muñoz, plus undefeated Hong Kong super flyweight Rex “The Wonder Kid” Tso in his Macao debut. Watching all the action from ringside will be Manny Pacquiao and former world lightweight champion Brandon Rios. Pacquiao and Rios will rumble at The Venetian Macao, headlining a spectacular event on November 23.
Promoted by Top Rank® and Sands China Ltd., in association with Tecate, Fists of Gold II tickets are on sale now at all CotaiTicketing™* box offices.
The fantastic night of entertainment ahead is the latest world-class sports spectacular from Sands China. The integrated resort developer’s multi-tiered entertainment strategy is aimed at diversifying Macao’s tourism economy through the varied offerings of its Cotai Strip Resorts, contributing to the city’s development into one of Asia’s top entertainment hubs and a world centre of tourism and leisure. April’s Fists of Gold event was a sold-out crowd pleaser, and was televised internationally to more than 30 countries, including to the U.S. via HBO2® and in China on CCTV5.
Fists of Gold II will once again reunite broadcasting icons Tim Ryan and Larry Merchant and former two-time heavyweight champion George Foreman for the international telecast where they will be calling the action from ringside. HBO2 will televise Fists of Gold II the same day in the U.S., beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET/PT
Sure to make a big splash during the multi-bout night of action is the six-round super flyweight non-title matchup between Hong Kong’s Rex Tso (6-0, 4 KOs), who will risk his undefeated record when he takes on battle-tested Rusalee Samor (20-4-2, 9 KOs), from Pattani, Thailand. The 25-year-old Tso is one of Hong Kong’s most popular fighters and already world-rated No. 17 by the WBC, capturing the WBC Asia Council Continental super flyweight title last December when he knocked out the vastly more experienced Timur Shailezof in the 10th round. Tso successfully defended the title on May 28, in front of a frenzied crowd of Tso fans in Hong Kong, knocking out Wandee Singwancha in the fourth round. Samor, 29, is a former IBF Pan Pacific flyweight champion. He captured the title in 2011 via a 12-round decision victory over Ryan Tampus and successfully defended it four times during his one-year reign before losing it to Ryan Ponteras in December. He returned to the winner’s circle in his last fight, April 14, scoring an impressive fourth-round knockout of Louis Leomoli.
Zou (1-0), from Guizhou, and trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, won his professional debut April 6, via a dominant four-round unanimous decision over gritty Eleazar Valenzuela of México. One of the most popular Olympic athletes in China, Zou was his nation’s first Olympic medallist in boxing as well as its first boxing gold medallist in the World Amateur Championships and the Olympics. He signed with Arum’s Top Rank at a press conference in Beijing in January.
Moving up to the flyweight division, Zou will be graduating to a six-round bout when he faces Jesus Ortega (3-1, 2 KOs) from Hermosillo, México. A stablemate of world flyweight champion Juan Estrada, the hard-hitting Ortega is an exciting prospect who enters this fight on a roll, having won his last two fights – his most recent a third-round knockout victory against Arcadio Sanchez April 19.
In addition to Zou’s return, the event line-up includes an undercard highlighted by two 12-round world championship fights. WBO/WBA flyweight champion Juan Estrada (23-2, 17 KOs), of Hermosillo, México, will make the first defence of the titles he won from Brian Viloria April 6 at Fists of Gold. Estrada faces the undefeated Milan Melindo (28-0, 11 KOs), of Manadue, Philippines. Melindo, the number one contender and mandatory challenger, earned his shot at the title by knocking out once-beaten Tommy Seran in the fourth round on the April 6 card in Macao.
Undefeated IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (16-0, 8 KOs), a native of Russia, now fighting from Oxnard, Calif., makes his first title defence against No. 1 contender and mandatory challenger Mauricio Muñoz (26-3, 12 KOs), of San Juan, Argentina. Gradovich captured the world title March 1 when he dethroned defending champion Billy Dib via a split decision. Muñoz earned his title shot by defeating previously unbeaten contender Luis Franco in his last fight, October 13, 2012.
The international telecast will open with a 10-round heavyweight rumble between undefeated contenders Andy Ruiz, Jr. (19-0, 13 KOs), of Mexicali, México, and Joe Hanks (21-0, 14 KOs), of Los Angeles.
The undercard also features undefeated Genesis Servania (21-0, 8 KOs), of Cebu City, Philippines, in an eight-round super bantamweight bout against Konosuke Tomiyama (23-5-1, 8 KOs), of Tokyo, Japan; Paul Fleming (18-0, 13 KOs), of Sydney, Australia, in an eight-round super featherweight bout against Chaiyong Sithsaithong (30-10-3, 21 KOs), of Sakon Nakhon, Thailand; and undefeated Dave Peñalosa (6-0, 4 KOs), from Cebu City, Philippines, in a four-round super bantamweight bout against Ngaotawan Sithsaithong (10-10-1, 5 KOs), of Bangkok, Thailand. Fleming and Peñalosa were both knockout victors at April’s Fists of Gold.
