Big Time Boxing Returns To Utah This Saturday

Heavy-handed punchers set the stage many years ago for David Tua, Roman Greenberg, Jeremy Williams and Co., continuing the strong Utah pro boxing tradition Saturday night in the Pinnacle FiteNite pay-per-view show at the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy.

World heavyweight champions “Gentleman” Jim Corbett and Jack “The Manassa Mauler” Dempsey both had their first pro wins in Salt Lake City. Corbett made his pro debut in Salt Lake City way back on July 14, 1886, fighting a draw with Duncan McDonald, but in his next fight, also in Salt Lake City, Corbett registered his first win, stopping Frank Smith in the second round.

Dempsey’s second pro fight was a first-round knockout of Young Herman on November 2, 1914. Dempsey had 20 of his 83 pro fights in Utah, winning 16 (14 KOs) with two draws, in Salt Lake City, Pocatello, Murray, Price, Provo and Ogden.

Dempsey, in 1933, had two one-round exhibitions with future world heavyweight champion Max Baer in Salt Lake City and 16 years later, “The Brown Bomber” Joe Louis fought a 4-round exhibition with Rex Layne in Salt Lake City.

The great Archie Moore defeated Joey Maxim by 15-round decision in 1953 for the world light heavyweight title in Ogden; three months prior to beating Joe Frazier for the WBC/WBA heavyweight championship, George Foreman stopped Terry Sorrell by second round knockout on October 16, 1972 in Salt Lake City.

The 48th anniversary of (West Jordan) Utah boxing icon Gene “Cyclone” Fullmer’s (55-6-3 (24 KOs) National Boxing Association middleweight title-winning performance against Carmen Basilio (TKO14) in San Francisco is August 28. Fullmer had three successful title defenses in Utah: 15-round decision against Spider Webb on December 4, 1959 at the George Nelson Field House in Logan, 12th round TKO of Basilio on June 29, 1960 at Derks Field in Salt Lake City, and 15-round decision versus Florentino Fernandez on Aug. 5, 1961 at Ogden Stadium.

Samoan strongman David Tua (47-3-1, 40 KOs), ranked No. 13 by the WBC, battles Mexican heavyweight champion Saul “La Cobra” Montana (48-14, 42 KOs) in Saturday night’s 10-round main event Former world title challenger Tua has knocked out current WBC title-holder Oleg Maskaev along with former world champions John Ruiz, Hasim Rahman and Michael Moorer.

Russian-born heavyweight sensation Roman Greenberg (25-0, 17 KOs), the No. 11 rated European heavyweight who was raised in Israel and fights out of England, takes on former WBO heavyweight title challenger “Dangerous” Damon Reed (43-11, 30 KOs) in the 10-round co-feature.

The eight-round cruiserweight battle between former WBO heavyweight title challenger Jeremy “Half-Man, Half-Amazing” Williams (41-5-1, 35 KOs) and Salt Lake City favorite Gary “Pit Bill” Gomez (18-8-1, 7 KOs) has been upgraded to a pay-per-view fight.

Former WBO heavyweight title challenger Williams (41-5-1, 35 KOs) has returned to the ring one division lighter than he fought in his first 47 pro bouts, coming back after 2 ½ years of inactivity when he was a mixed-martial-arts fighter and coach on The Contender reality television series. The diverse Williams faces Gomez (18-8-1, 7 KOs), former Global Union and WBC Cruiserweight Americas cruiserweight title-holder, who has never having been stopped.

Pinnacle FiteNite is a pro boxing pay-per-view series emanating for a wide variety of venues. The Aug. 18th edition at the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy, Utah, promoted by C.A.M. Boxing, Inc. in association with Sports and Entertainment Media, Inc. and Gotham Boxing.
Undefeated New York City middleweight prospect Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (13-0, 11 KOs) is scheduled to fight in the opening PPV bout.

Also scheduled to fight on the Aug. 18th undercard is pound-for-pound the toughest lawyer in the world, Las Vegas high-profile defense attorney Marc “The Defender” Saggese (2-0, 2 KOs). All bouts and fighters are subject to change.

The Aug. 18th Pinnacle FiteNite event will be produced by 21 Lakes and distributed by Integrated Sports. The 3-hour, four-bout minimum Pinnacle FiteNite show will be available live on Aug. 18 at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT on both cable and satellite PPV via iN Demand, DirecTV and TVN, as well as live in Canada via satellite PPV on Bell Expressvue, for a suggested retail price of $24.95.

Tickets, priced at $35.00, $50.00 and $75.00, are on sale and available at www.smithstix.com, South Towne Exposition Center box office, and local outlets. For additional information go to www.pinnaclefitenite.com. Doors open 5:00 PM/MT, first bout 6:00 PM/MT, first PPV bout 7:00 PM/MT.