YORK (February 23, 2012) – DiBella Entertainment has announced a solid undercard supporting the Sergio Martinez vs. Matthew Macklin card, entitled “THE REAL Middleweight Championship – Get Your Irish Up”, on March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day), in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
12-round main event features The Ring Magazine’s No. 3 pound-for-pound fighter, World Middleweight Champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KOs), defending against rugged Irish challenger Matthew “Mack the Knife” Macklin (28-3, 19 KOs). In the 10-round “Bombs Away” co-feature, super middleweight Edwin “La Bomba” Rodriguez (20-0, 14 KOs) takes on Don “Da Bomb” George (22-1-1, 19 KOs) in an highly anticipated action-packed fight with possible future world title shot implications. Martinez-Macklin and Rodriguez-George will both air live on HBO’s “World Championship Boxing,” starting at 10 PM/ET 7 PM/PT.
Tickets, priced at $505, $355, $205, $125 and $65, are available to purchase through the Madison Square Garden Box Office, through Ticketmaster at Ticketmaster.com or by calling (866) 858-0008. Call DiBella Entertainment at (212) 947-2577, visit www.dbe1.com and @loudibella on Twitter for more information.
A battle of unbeaten heavyweights, Magomed “Mago” Abdusalamov (13-0, 13 KOs) and Jason Pettaway (11-0, 8 KOs), will provide chief support on the undercard in a 10/12 round fight for the vacant World Boxing Council (“WBC”) Silver Championship. The Russian-born Abdusalamov, who now lives and trains out of Oxnard, California, where Martinez is based, sports a perfect 13-fight pro record with 13 wins by knockout and is already rated No. 15 by the World Boxing Association (“WBA”).
WBA No. 6-rated junior middleweight Charlie Ota (19-1-1, 13 KOs), who is the reigning OPBF and Japanese 154-pound champion, will be fighting for the first time outside of Japan, ironically, in the city in which he was born.
Former world title challenger Argenis Mendez (19-2, 10 KOs), a Dominican junior lightweight, will be fighting close to his Brooklyn home in an eight-round bout. The 25-year-old is a past United States Boxing Association and WBA FEDALATIN super featherweight titleholder.
The remainder of the entertaining undercard finds a strong Irish flavor, starting with popular Irish-American light heavyweight Seanie Monaghan (12-0, 8 KOs), who faces his stiffest test to date against Eric Watkins (6-1) in an eight-rounder.
DiBella Entertainment’s hard-working publicist, popular Catskills middleweight Kevin Rooney (3-1, 1 KO), returns in a four-round bout. His father is former pro fighter and Mike Tyson’s trainer, Kevin Rooney Sr.
Fan favorite Danny “Little Mac” McDermott (9-3-2, 4 KOs) is scheduled to fight in an eight-round junior welterweight fight, while Yonkers, by way of Dublin, heavyweight Thomas Hardwick is matched against Blu Delong (0-3) in a four-round bout.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
Man, if I could only afford to fly out to New York and go to Madison Square Garden to see this card! Martinez and Macklin are sure to put on a good show and the undercard is undeniably worth watching. This fight is definitely a must see for me in HD through my TV provider/employer, DISH! Thankfully, I know that I can always depend on them to bring great fights like these directly into my home!
hope you enjoyed the fight