Venroy July
Suitland, MD (April 10, 2014) – As cruiserweight contender who works full time as a lawyer and promotes many of his own fights, 31-year-old Venroy “Hardwork” July is constantly on the go.
On the average weekday, July wakes up around 6 am to go for a run, comes back to freshen up and have breakfast, heads to his full-time job at Hogan Lovells to work from 9-7 and then goes to the boxing gym for about 2 hours. After many of his aforementioned exhausting days, July heads back to the office and finishes up work. On top of all that, Quantis Graves, the man he faces Saturday evening at the Patapsco Arena in Baltimore, MD, is his toughest foe to date.
Graves, an alternate on the 2008 US Olympic Team and three-time Golden Gloves champion, has a significant edge in experience on July due to his amateur pedigree. The 31-year old Texan is yet to lose as a pro, compiling an impressive 9-0-1 record with four victories by way of knockout.
“For me to become a championship level fighter, I have to beat quality fighters,” said July, a 2007 Graduate of Duke University’s School of Law. “Beating an unbeaten and well regarded opponent like Quantis Graves will help me get there. I’ve seen him fight before and he’s a good fighter but so am I. I’m very confident that I’ll win this one.”
After a brief amateur career, July’s been a surprising success in the paid ranks. The popular Suitland, MD based Jamaican has an excellent 16-1-2 ledger, scoring six knockouts along the way. On January 24, he impressively outpointed Sevdail Sherifi in Atlantic City, NJ. After that victory, July was noticed by former cruiserweight champion and heavyweight contender Steve “USS” Cunningham, whom he recently sparred with.
“Steve is a great guy and a great fighter. We went at in the gym and knowing that I can hang with top fighters like that only adds to my confidence. Everybody in the gym tells you how good you are, but actually going in there and trading punches with a top fighter is a whole different thing. My work with Steve Cunningham definitely helped me get ready for the Graves bout and future challenges.”
July meets Graves in the eight round main event.
On the undercard, super middleweight knockout artist Demond “Dbestatit” Nicholson, heavyweight Dwayne “Big Ticket” McRae, undefeated junior middleweight Larry “Cuban Assassin” Recio, and featherweight Alexandru Marin will all appear separate bouts.
The card is promoted by Hardwork Promotions and tickets are available by going to Hardworkpromotions.com or calling 410-635-4754.
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.
