|
SERIES TWO OF QUALIFYING LEAGUE
KICKS OFF ON TUESDAY
Sunday 15 September 2002
Following a quiet two weeks the Heavyweight Boxing Federation will be back to something resembling its normal, busy self during the coming seven days with a pair of five-bout fight cards scheduled to be held.
Both events will be headlined by feeder league tournament finals, those bouts coming after a quartet of Qualifying League contests. On Tuesday Rosco Toles and Leotis Martin will go toe-to-toe for eight rounds at the Staples Center in an anticipated matchup, the winner to claim the title of Pacific Coast Boxing League Champion. They'll also be granted a berth in the upcoming World Ranking tournament. The same prize will be at stake when Germany's Markus Stober takes on the overachieving Croatian Lovro Alanovic in the Southern European Championship bout on Thursday. Alanovic defeated #1-seeded Russian Genadi Yantchev to make the final so it will be interesting to see if he can spring another upset. The card will be held in Germany so Stober will have the crowd on his side.
Those tournament finals are important bouts but they'll most likely be overshadowed by the running rivalry between the Florida Alliance and Indianapolis slugger Mike Hanson. The latest round in their ongoing saga started off on Friday when Hanson labelled the Alliance a "bunch of chokers" before the "Florida Firebrand" Elmer Ray retorted yesterday by saying he'd like to step in the ring against Hanson "jus' to shut 'im up". It could turn explosive in Los Angeles on Tuesday as both Hanson and Alliance member Romy Alvarez will be in action in Qualifying League bouts. Ray, along with fellow Alliance members Terone Haynes and Ariel Reyes will be in attendance while Hanson confirmed on Friday that he'll be accompanied by some of his close friends.
Including Hanson and Alvarez there's a quartet of talented, promising fighters involved in the QL bouts, with Connecticut-born German Scott Mundt facing a challenging test in the shape of the long-limbed, quick-fisted West Virginian Hugh Phillips. That contest is also scheduled for Tuesday while on Thursday 19 year-old Nashville native Max Cayton will also have his hands full against the 6'6" Russian giant Aleksandr Bystrov.
Even though there's not a full menu on offer, the coming week promises to be an exciting one...
|