DiBella Entertainment’s (DBE) popular and longstanding Broadway Boxing series returns on Thursday, January 29, with a thrilling nine-bout card held at NYC’s famed B.B. King Blues Club & Grill. Headlining the event will be Brooklyn’s talented and charismatic light heavyweight prospect “Notorious” Travis Peterkin (13-0, 5 KOs), who has been a fixture on the series since signing with DBE in 2012.
Peterkin began boxing at age 11 and was an outstanding amateur, compiling a record of 95-7, while winning the New York Golden Gloves prior to turning pro in 2011. Behind a thudding jab and stiff straight right hand, the now-24-year-old southpaw dominated Otis Griffin, winner of The Next Great Champ reality show, via unanimous decision, in his last bout on October 15. It was Peterkin’s first contest scheduled for eight rounds and his biggest victory to date. On January 29, the highly touted Peterkin will be determined to continue to build on that momentum as he is poised to make the move from prospect to contender.
Competing in an eight-round super bantamweight contest will be Brooklyn’s world-rated contender Rafael Vazquez (12-1, 10 KOs) as he mixes it up with Joseph Rios (13-11-2, 4 KOs), from San Antonio, Texas. The heavy-handed WBA #6-rated super bantamweight contender Vazquez got a late start to his professional career, but he burst onto the scene in 2013 with an upset ninth-round KO victory over Leon Moore (30-2) to win the vacant WBA Fedelatin super bantamweight crown and propel himself into the WBA’s top ten ratings. Rios, who holds four victories over previously undefeated opponents, won the WBC USNBC and Texas super flyweight titles in 2012.
Rising super middleweight star Steed Woodall (6-0, 4 KOs) will make his second appearance on a Broadway Boxing card when he faces off against Jas Phipps (5-5-1, 2 KOs). The British-Irish Woodall, now living and training in Palm Beach, FL, was a five-time National champion in the UK as an amateur before relocating to the US and making his pro debut in March of last year. The 20-year-old Woodall, nicknamed “The Stallion”, has a tremendous fan-friendly style and carries absolute dynamite in both hands. After fighting to a controversial draw against the 7-0 Ulises Sierra in his opponent’s hometown last August, Phipps scored the most impressive victory of his career in November, stopping the 21-3 Juan De La Rosa inside the opening round.
The 26-year-old Ukrainian Ivan Golub amassed an astonishing record of 270-32 during his amateur career. He became a five-time Ukrainian National champion, won bronze medals at the Junior World Championships in 2006 and at the World Championships in 2009. He also participated in the World Series of Boxing, winning all five of his bouts. Turning pro in June 2014, Golub (4-0, 3 KOs), who now lives and trains in Brooklyn, and is co-promoted by Fight Promotions Inc., will compete in a six-round middleweight contest against Tucson, Arizona’s Rashawn McCain (2-2).
It will be a battle of the boroughs when DBE’s former #1-rated US amateur and now undefeated prospect from the Bronx, Christopher “Golden” Galeano (5-0), takes on Queens-resident Alexander Mancera (8-5-1, 5 KOs) in a six-round middleweight contest. Galeano, who is co-promoted by 50 Cent’s SMS Promotions, won National, regional, and New York Golden Gloves championships and is now one of the bright young stars on the DBE roster.
Belarusian-native junior welterweight Ivan Baranchyk (3-0, 2 KOs), also co-promoted by Fight Promotions Inc., will return to the ring against Brooklyn’s Ian James (3-10-1, 1 KO). In his last bout on December 3, Baranchyk outfought the undefeated Alfonso Olvera, repeatedly battering him with power shots while learning to pace himself going the four-round distance for the first time in winning a unanimous decision. As an amateur, Baranchyk won gold at the 2010 Class A Vilnuse tournament, 2011 and 2013 Match Event tournament, 2011 Kostukovichi International tournament, 2011 and 2012 Soligorsk Open International tournament, 2012 Class A Liventsev tournament, 2013 Active Military tournament, 2013 Republic of Belarus Open Cup, 2014 Vitebsk University tournament in Belarus, and was an amateur champion of Belarus from 2009-2014.
Undefeated super middleweight southpaw prospect Lennox “2 Sharpe” Allen (17-0-1, 10KO’s), of New York, NY, by way of Guyana, will see action for the first time since August 2013, having recovered from a series of injuries that kept him out of the ring. He will challenge Ghana’s “Dangerous” Kojo Issah (14-1-1, 7 KOs), who is making his US debut. Having turned pro in 2004, Allen has thus far won the Guyanese, New York State and WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation super middleweight titles. Now fully healed, Allen is looking to get back to his winning ways and set himself up for a breakout year in 2015.
The card will also showcase two of DBE’s most recent additions to its roster, lightweight Wesley Ferrer (6-0, 4 KOs) and junior middleweight Shawn Cameron (7-0, 4 KOs), both undefeated prospects from Brooklyn. Ferrer, a 2009 New York Golden Gloves winner and pro boxer since September 2013, squares off in a six-round lightweight contest against Helario Medina (2-4), from Longmont, Colorado, who will be fighting outside of his home state for the first time as a pro.
Cameron served in the Army for six years deployed in Iraq and was honorably discharged in 2006 as a Staff Sergeant. He then began a four-year amateur boxing campaign, competing in several National PAL, Metro and Golden Gloves tournaments, winning the New York Golden Gloves in 2009 at 152 pounds. Cameron, who turned pro in July 2012, will meet the experienced Daniel Calzada (10-12-2, 2 KOs), of Dona Ana, New Mexico, in a junior middleweight bout scheduled for six rounds.
