On Friday night, January 16, 2015, the two champions from the Boxcino 2014 tournament will be featured in co-main events as part of an ESPN Friday Night Fights telecast at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
In one main event, middleweight Willie Monroe Jr. will making his first appearance since capturing the Boxcino crown. In the second co-feature, the Boxcino 2014 lightweight champion Petr Petrov will also be in action.
Monroe of Rochester, New York has a record of 18-1 with six knockouts and is riding an eight-fight win streak. He is currently number-three by the WBA and number-seven by the WBO.
He catapulted up the rankings on the strength of his Boxcino tournament win where he defeated Donatas Bondorovas, previously undefeated Vitalii Kopylenko and in the finals he won a 10-round unanimous decision over previously undefeated Brandon Adams in a bout that took place on May 23 at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino.
Petrov of Madrid, Spain has a record of 35-4-2 with 17 knockouts and has won three in a row which won him the Boxcino Lightweight tournament.
In the first round of Boxcino, Petrov was very workmanlike in defeating previously undefeated Fedor Papazov. He then took out Chris Rudd in four rounds in their semifinal bout.
In the finals, Petrov looked sensational by stopping Fernando Carcamo in the 8th round to not only win the Boxcino tournament but in the process, he won the NABA & NABO titles. The win also surged Petrov to the number-three ranking by the WBA and number-seven by the WBO.
“We are excited to start the year with Willie and Petr on ESPN,”said Banner Promotions CEO Arthur Pelullo.
“They are coming back to the same venue where they won their titles. This is going to be a big year for both of them and on January 16, 2015 they will continue their quests to become world champions.”
“After winning last years’ Boxcino tournament, we are very excited to again have Willie Monroe Jr. and Petr Petrov back on our network,” said John Campagna, Director of Programming at ESPN. “After last year’s event, both fighters proved that they deserve to be in the conversation when discussing the top fighters in both the middleweight and lightweight divisions.”
