Yudel Jhonson/Freddy Hernandez Set to Headline ShoBox-Televised “Shootout at Texas Station” from Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel in Las Vegas
Friday, May 11, at the Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel in Las Vegas, Cuba’s Yudel Jhonson (12-0, 8 KOs) will face Freddy “The Rail” Hernandez (30-2, 20 KOs) from Mexico in the 10-round light middleweight main event of a ShoBox: The New Generation televised boxing event entitled “Shootout at Texas Station”, being presented by Warriors Boxing.
Also scheduled for televised appearances that night will be Cuban super featherweight prospect Rances “Kid Blast” Barthelemy (15-0, 11 KOs), who will face Mexico’s Aalan Martinez (12-1-1, 8 KOs) in the eight-round televised opener, plus an eight-round super middleweight battle between Colombia’s undefeated Alexander Brand (17-0, 15 KOs) and Sweden’s undefeated Badou Jack “The Ripper” (10-0, 8 KOs).
Cuban 2004 Olympic silver medalist Yudel Jhonson has had a successful pro career thus far. The 30-year-old southpaw won the vacant WBC FECARBOX light middleweight title in March of last year via TKO 7 over the normally durable Richard Gutierrez and has already successfully defended it once against contender Jose Miguel Torres (UD 10). Jhonson now makes his home in Miami, Florida.
33-year-old Mexico City native Freddy Hernandez has scored victories over several former world champions and top contenders, including Ben Tackie, DeMarcus Corley, Mike Anchondo and, most recently, Luis Collazo. He has lost only once in the last seven years and that to formidable world champion Andre Berto.
Undefeated super middleweight Badou Jack didn’t start boxing until his late teens, but the Swedish/Gambian fought his way to the 2008 Olympics and was a six-time Swedish National Champion who went 122-28 as an amateur. Tall for a super middleweight, 28-year-old Jack works the body with gusto and has shown excellent punching power. Jack was recently named to ESPN Columnist Dan Rafael’s Super 25 list of the best prospects of 2011.
Undefeated 35-year-old Bogota, Colombian, native Alexander Brand comes into the fight with Jack as something of an unknown commodity outside of Columbia, where he had an outstanding amateur career. He has left his native Colombia twice in his professional career that began in 2009, and fought only once in the United States. With an 88% knockout percentage, Brand has also shown excellent punching power.
As the saying goes, someone’s 0 must go in this matchup.
Cuban power-punching sensation Rances “Kid Blast” Barthelemy is coming off the biggest victory of his young career. Last February, in front of a national television audience, Barthelemy took on fellow undefeated fighter Hylon Williams Jr. and jumped into the mix as a world contender by dominating Williams via eight-round unanimous decision. As has been the case with all his opponents, Barthelemy was too big and strong for Williams. 25-year-old Barthelemy stands an amazing 5′ 11″ for his 130-lb weight class, and towers over his opponents.
28-year-old Aalan Martinez is a native of Michoacán de Ocampo, Mexico. Durable and fearless, the southpaw slugger has beaten all but one of his opponents, coming up short in an excellent, competitive matchup against highly touted Evgeny Gradovich last April.
Popular Las Vegas prospect Jesus Gutierrez (3-0, 1 KO) will appear on the undercard in a four-rounder against an opponent that is TBA.
The rest of the night’s undercard will be announced shortly.
“The last show we did, here at Texas Station, was a tremendous success, so we’re coming back with an even bigger event this time,” said Warriors Boxing President, Leon Margules. “The people here are terrific to work with and the crowd was appreciative and knowledgeable. We’re extremely happy to be returning with a world-class event of this caliber.”
Tickets for “Shootout at Texas Station” will be available soon, priced at $27 and $52 and are available at Ticketmaster, any Texas Station rewards center or at SCLV.COM/CONCERTS. A few VIP seats are available at a price of $102 can be purchased by calling (954) 985-1155.
On fight night, doors open at 6:30 and the action starts at 7:00 pm.
Station Bucks may be used to purchase tickets. All ages welcome. Under 21 must be accompanied by an adult 21 or over. Show subject to change without notice. Management reserves all rights. Digital Photography and video prohibited. Tickets can be purchased at any Station Casinos Boarding Pass Rewards Center, The Fiesta’s, by logging onto stationcasinos.com/concerts or by calling 1-800-745-3000.
Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel is located at 2101 Texas Star Lane in North Las Vegas. Telephone: (702) 631-1000 or (800) 654-8888.
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.
