By Ryan Maquiñana
A pair of unbeaten prospects will showcase their skills in Phoenix tonight when featherweight Emilio Colon-Garcia and lightweight Victor Castro meet separate foes at the Madison Event Center.
Colon-Garcia (3-0, 1 KO) fights Miguel Armendarez (0-5-1), while Castro (3-0, 2 KOs) fights Carlos Luque (2-7) in a card staged by SCG and Face 2 Face Events.
“The venue is a big old warehouse converted into a boxing arena and it has that old Rocky Balboa feel,” promoter Michelle Rosado said of the Madison. “It’s very up close and personal. You’re sitting ringside, and you can be sitting five feet from the ring getting sweat and blood on you. And I love it! It’s not about the glitz and glamour; it’s about boxing.”
Rosado has already held two shows this year, and would like to “finish the year with a bang” with a scheduled nine-bout card that features two amateur scraps as well.
“We’re opening up the show with two amateur bouts with a much-anticipated rematch of the Arizona Golden Gloves between [junior welterweight] Roderick Flores and Freddie Cintora,” she said.
Phoenix has been abuzz in recent years with the emergence of fighters like super middleweight contender Jesus Gonzales and Jose Benavidez Jr., a 19-year-old whom Freddie Roach has proclaimed “the best prospect in the world.” Rosado would like to build on this momentum with Garcia and Castro.
“As far as the local pro talent, Emilio Garcia, I think he’s the next thing out here,” she said. “He’s charismatic. He makes a fun fight. Victor Castro is relentless, so he comes to fight every time, and we have a bunch of pro debuts on this card as well.”
Rosado’s motive behind these cards stems from her undying love of the sport and the participants involved.
"Emilio is not signed yet, but I’m really trying to showcase local talent here,” she said. “I’m just starting out, and I don’t have big money. I have yet to make a dollar doing this. I want to give them the right exposure and help build him so that he starts getting the right people looking at him so that they take care of him to a point where I can’t eventually.”
It all started when she unexpectedly began managing a fighter, and ever since, she’s been driven to cultivate the fight scene in the Valley of the Sun.
“I started working with a fighter, helped him get fights, and got him training with Jeff Mayweather in Las Vegas,” she recalled. “Then I saw the sport behind the scenes. I got see how the fighters were treated, environments they were put in, contracts coming in at the last minute.
“I thought to myself, is this how boxing is conducted? I thought instead of helping one guy, I could put on events where I could help 10 guys or 20 guys. I want to produce quality shows for the fans and for the fighters.”
The Madison Event Center is located at 441 W. Madison St. in Phoenix. First bout takes place at 7:30 p.m.
Ryan Maquiñana is the boxing correspondent at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Advisory Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com , check out his blog at www.maqdown.com or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.
