Thompson Boxing Returns

Thompson Boxing Returns

By Steve Kim, MaxBoxing (April 29, 2011) Doghouse Boxing
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On Friday night, Thompson Boxing returns to the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, California. Originally, the main event was to have featured Jose Reynoso versus Estaban Almaraz but Reynoso has been scratched as he suffered a cut during a recent sparring session. So in his place is Mauricio Herrera, who defeated the rugged Russian Ruslan Provodnikov back in January.

"We have a really, really good show, I think," said Alex Camponovo, matchmaker and general manager of Thompson Boxing Promotions. "We have Mauricio Herrera, who has finally recovered from the fracture in his cheekbone and he's going to be facing Cristian Favela. It should be an interesting match-up considering Favela gave Jesse Vargas fits in his last fight and he's one of these durable, durable opponents that never gets knocked out. I counted the amount of prospects he faced; it's like 18 of them. He's just not a survivor but he knows how to fight these guys. It'll be interesting to see how Maurcio fights him and how he'll do with him.

"Then we have his brother, Alberto Herrera; he's going to fight against Aaron Martinez. That's another interesting bout."

Rounding out this show are prospects Abraham Lopez and Jonathan Arrellano.

In the last year or so, Thompson Boxing has not only been a presence on the local club scene in Southern California but on bigger platforms on HBO and Showtime as they co-promote the likes of Timothy Bradley and Yonnhy Perez, who once fought on these smaller cards. Camponovo admits that as these two moved up like the Jeffersons, it did create a little bit of a vacuum in terms of filling out their smaller cards.

"Also," Camponovo pointed out, "we had a little bit of a stretch were we didn't sign some guys. We were kinda holding back a bit, I guess, because of the market we were going through. We had to be very careful in what we were signing and what our investments would be in fighters. And then we bounced back pretty good last year and we do have quite a few talented kids that we're moving up. Mauricio's one of them. Then we have Efrain Esquivias; we have really high hopes for him and a bunch of other kids that are moving up but it will take time. We're fortunate enough to get Timothy and Yonnhy at around the same time. It was the same thing with Josesito Lopez; out of those three, two were obviously able to go and fight for a world title.

"So I'm considering this our second generation of fighters that we have. We have much more talent in the sense of numbers and I think something good is going to come out of that."

In 2011, they have gone monthly since February and excluding May (when they have their golf tournament) they will continue that pace. On May 13^th, Julio Diaz faces Kendall Holt on ESPN2 and then two weeks later, Lopez faces Steve Chambers on the “Deuce.”

You could say that Thompson Boxing is a major league, world-class, club promoter.

"Yeah, we could be called that," said Camponovo. "There's no real formula to it other than keeping guys busy and trying to find the best talent possible. And there's a lot of it out there. There's a lot of kids that want to work with us and we're really fortunate to have a good following. There's a lot of people who don't know who's fighting the next card who just want to be there because they know they get great fights; they get entertained, grab a beer and some nachos. We haven't changed our prices for the past 11 years. We're not going to change anything.

"We're going to keep on doing the same thing."

SUPER SIX SNAFU

On Wednesday, there was a bit of concern that the May 14^th“Super Six” semifinal bout between Andre Ward and Arthur Abraham at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California was in jeopardy because the agreed upon neutrality of the officials for that fight would not be fulfilled. I emailed Ward's promoter, Dan Goossen, who later emailed me this release that was sent out by Goossen-Tutor:

Contrary to Wilfred Sauerland’s comment in his press release of today when he states, “all of a sudden (California Commission) insists on installing a Californian judge as well as a Californian referee,” Wilfred would be 100% incorrect that the commission insisted on a California referee or acted in any manner inconsistent with our agreement with Sauerland.

Exactly what was agreed upon, the California Commission has granted, one Californian judge, one German judge, one neutral territory judge, and a neutral territory referee, which the California Commission was very helpful in supporting.

“As for Andre Ward, he is focused on preparing and continuing his rise towards the finals of the Showtime Super Six Tournament bout against Arthur Abraham regardless of the officials.”

FRIDAY FLURRIES

There's plenty of other boxing on Friday with Telefutura having a good looking doubleheader featuring Peter Quillin-Jesse Brinkley and David Rodela vs. Lonnie Smith from the Reno Events Center in Reno, NV...”Friday Night Fights” has the quick turnaround of Carlos Molina against Allen Conyers...Telemundo has Darley Perez-Jose Reyes. Make sure to set those DVRs...Tickets for “New Blood” at the Doubletree in Ontario are priced at $75, $45 and $30. They can be purchased by calling 714-935-0900...Saw Manny Pacquiao workout on Wednesday; he just might be the most energetic fighter I've ever seen in the gym. If Shane Mosley pulls the upset on May 7^th, there are no excuses- he beat a “Pac-Man” that was ready to go...I think it's long past due that the NFL owners start dealing in good faith and try and hammer out a deal. This whole ordeal is going well for them...I still can't believe the Spurs found a way to win game five against the Grizz... .

Our own East Coast correspondent Alec Kohut has a brand-new weekly online broadcast that airs every Tuesday night at 9:00 PM EST. You can find it by logging on to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/aleckohut/… .

I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing.

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