Emily Pandelakis Talks ‘Iron Boy 15’ Card on September 20

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download (2)“We are currently working on our fourteenth card in Phoenix, Arizona. We started back in 2011 and like you said ‘these guys’ didn’t have a place where they could fight consistently.” said Emily Pandelakis, one of the main people making Iron Boy Promotions next card happen on September 20th. She went on to explain,“Roberto Vargas, the promoter, he came in and brought Iron Boy to Phoenix.”

For Iron Boy promotions, it has a been a Cinderella like story as the promotion developed from the ground up using social media, online streams and full fledged fight week to the press to gain national steam promoting fighters from the southwest. Just recently Iron Boy did it’s first card in conjunction with Top Rank promotions as well as made it to UniMas network television, a big step for a promotional company who got off the ground just three years ago.

“With Top Rank coming in and of course putting on some of their prospects as well as last fight and this fight, but the [southwest fighters] are absolutely getting a chance to fight and to get that experience where they are not coming in as the b-side.” Pandelakis said as she spoke proudly of the promotion. The card features a mixture of both national fixtures with prospects such as Trevor McCumby, Shane Mosley Jr. and Andy Ruiz, but blends that with homegrown Iron Boy talent such as Alexis Santiago, currently riding a five fight winning streak.

The consistency is showing. The repetition is creating a fan base for the fighters and Santiago is one of the fighters who is greatly benefiting. “[Santiago] has such a great fan base and I love having his fans at the show, because they are so loud and so much fun.” Pandelakis explained.

“To grow we need television, we need someone like Top Rank to back us. I had a little moment during our weigh in. Our weigh in was just amazing. It went really fast and looked great and we had Lupe Contreras announcing the weigh in, I had an emotional moment like wow, we are really doing this,” Pandelakis said with pride talking about the partnership with Top Rank for the past show. The biggest takeaway though is that after one show between the two promotions, Top Rank came right back for the following show, a good sign if you were to observe from the outside looking in.

Andy Ruiz Jr. headlines this card on September 20th at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona as he faces Siarhei Liakhovich, who is best known for getting knocked out by Deontay Wilder on ShoBox in a frightening highlight reel KO. Ruiz is still thought to be a solid prospect, but is still trying to live down the shame of his rather underwhelming performance on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios undercard in which he was being outboxed by Tor Hamer until Hamer retired on his stool after the third round. Ruiz has since been featured on undercards on UniMas trying to build his stock back up and get promotional muscle behind him. An impressive win against a tough foe as he has lined up could get him in the running for a top 10 foe at heavyweight.

Iron Boy 14 will take place at Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona for ticket information please visit ironboypromotions.com or follow this direct link http://celebritytheatre.ticketforce.com/ordertickets.asp?p=1571. The card will also be televised on UniMas as part of the ‘Solo Boxeo’ regularly scheduled programming.