Melson to face Wilson January 21!

New York, NY (January 13, 2012) – Boyd “Rainmaker” Melson will face his most experienced foe to date when he battles Shawn Rawley Wilson in a six round junior middleweight bout Saturday, January 21 at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom.

Hailing from Omaha, NE, Wilson’s faced a number of quality opponents including contenders DeAndre Latimore, Grzegorz Proksa and Jesus Gonzalez. In his most recent bout on October 15, Wilson improved to 6-5 (1 KO) by outpointing Reuben Rodriguez. In addition to having a winning record as a pro boxer, the 29-year-old is a top-notch mixed martial artist with close to 50 fights.

“Wilson is definitely coming to fight,” said Melson, a West Point graduate who improved to 7-0 after knocking out Danny Lugo in December on the Andre Ward-Carl Froch undercard in Atlantic City. “With the experience he has in boxing and MMA, I need to be at my best, especially because a number of West Point boxers are going to be on hand watching me. I’m training hard and working on my endurance because this is going to be a barnburner!”

Melson is also excited about his growing fan base, which helps support his donations to Justadollarplease.org in association with America’s first Clinical Stem Cell Trial using Umbilical Cord Cells.

“It’s truly an honor to see more and more people supporting me each fight. All of my tickets for this fight have been sold, so I really owe it to the great fans out there that are not only helping me, but those in need by supporting the cause”

In association with Justadollarplease, Melson created Team Fight to Walk, whose mission is to raise awareness within the boxing community about the importance of stem cell research for spinal cord injuries. Team Fight to Walk is comprised of Melson, former two-time cruiserweight champion Steve “USS” Cunningham, title contender DeAndre “The Bull” Latimore, Edgar “El Chamaco” Santana, Hector Camacho Jr., 2008 US Olympian Shawn Estrada, and prospects Sid “The Messenger” El Harrak, Denis “Da Momma’s Boy” Douglin, Frank Galarza, Vinny “The Lion” O’Brien, Ahmed “Prince of Egypt” Samir and Delen “Sniper” Parsley.

For more information or to make a donation, go to teamfighttowalk.com or Justadollarplease.org.

Fans can contact Boyd at Facebook.com/Boydmelson.