Art Pelullo Seeks More Boxcino Success On ESPN2
By Keith Idec
Promoter Art Pelullo hopes the upcoming Boxcino tournaments are as successful as those he helped put on ESPN2 last year.
Pelullo said the doubleheader that featured finals of the Boxcino middleweight and lightweight tournaments accounted for one of the two highest-rated boxing telecasts on ESPN2 in 2014. The junior middleweight portion of the single-elimination, two-division Boxcino tournament is scheduled to begin Friday night (9 p.m. ET) with four six-round quarterfinal fights from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
“What the tournament does for ESPN is changes things up for their fan base,” Pelullo said. “It makes it more interesting. They like the format of the tournament. They like to pick who’s going to win in the bracket. What the tournament does for the fighters is gets them ESPN exposure. They can fight on ESPN three times if they get to the final.”
The four fights scheduled for Friday night include Alex Perez (18-1, 10 KOs), of Newark, N.J., against Los Angeles’ Brandon Adams (15-1, 10 KOs), Ukraine’s Stanyslav Skorohod (8-0, 6 KOs) versus Cleveland’s Michael Moore (13-0, 6 KOs), Newark’s John Thompson (14-1, 5 KOs) against San Francisco’s Ricardo Pinell (10-1-1, 6 KOs) and Vito Gasparyan (14-3-5, 8 KOs), of Glendale, Calif., versus Guyana’s Simeon Hardy (13-0, 10 KOs).
Thompson replaced Cleotis Pendarvis (17-4-2, 6 KOs) on Thursday because Los Angeles’ Pendarvis was three pounds overweight.
The winners of Friday’s fights will advance to eight-round semifinals April 3 in Corona, Calif. The winners of those two bouts will square off in the 10-round final May 22 at an undetermined site.
“The guys who won Boxcino [last year], the tournament has helped their careers,” Pelullo said. “A young guy [middleweight Willie Monroe Jr.] is moving forward and the other guy [lightweight Petr Petrov], it’s making a second career for him. It’s great exposure for them.”
The heavyweight portion of the Boxcino tournament is scheduled to begin Feb. 20. ESPN2 will televise four heavyweight quarterfinals that night from Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, N.Y.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
