ESPN and Main Events Team Up Once Again For Friday Night Fights

Added on May 17, 2011 by Brian Blake in

Boxing

This week’s installment of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights series sees the network once again return to New Jersey where they team up with the Main Events Promotional firm to present former world title challenger Joel Julio as well as undefeated 2008 U.S. Olympian Sadam “The World Kid” Ali in co-main event bouts at the Amerihealth Pavilion where, as always, Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas will be calling the action live.

The Colombian born Julio looks to make it two wins in a row after a big KO loss to Alfredo Angulo in the eleventh round of their 2010 bout. A win over Buffalo’s Anges Adjaho will help put him back on track along with the unanimous decision he took over Jamaal Davis last August. This bout also marks his first fight back down into the welterweight division after a five year journey as a junior middleweight.

“Joel’s been preparing for this fight for about three months,” trainer Anthony Hamm said. “I’ve been working with Joel since the Angulo fight. I didn’t want him to take that fight, especially at 154 pounds, because Joel’s a natural 147-pounder. He looks good at this weight and he’s punching harder now. He’s going to be a sight to see this fight.”

Brooklyn’s Ali, taking a step up in class, will meet “The Renegade” John Revish (9-3-2, 8 KO’s). Ali is coming off a third-round knockout over Javier Perez. After that fight, ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael wrote, “Ali looked very good in dismantling Perez. Ali, with a tremendous speed and power advantage, nearly had Perez out in the first round when he crushed him with a left hook to the jaw. The punch sent Perez’s head swiveling and knocked him to his rear end. In the third round, Ali landed another brutal left hook to the jaw that dropped Perez even harder. Perez was flat on his back and spread eagle as the referee stopped it at 2 minutes, 40 seconds. He remained on the floor for a few minutes, and Ali had himself an eye-catching victory.”

Prudential Centers’ Amerihealth Pavilion will bring Main Events back to the intimacy and excitement of its roots. Beginning in May 1978, and lasting through April 1986, Main Events made its name in the boxing business with a series of more than 50 fight cards at Ice World, a little known ice skating rink in Totowa, N.J.

By 1980, ESPN had begun televising the “Fights on Ice” series. What started out as a local incubator for local boxing talent quickly grew into a nationally known phenomenon. The final show at Totowa in 1986 featured Mark Breland and was broadcast live on ABC.

“We plan to replicate the Ice World model in this new space and develop the champions of the future,” said Main Events CEO Kathy Duva.