By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – April 29 is the target date to bring boxing back to the renovated Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island.
Brett Yormark, chief executive officer for Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, confirmed that a hold has been placed on the Nassau Coliseum for that night with the New York State Athletic Commission. The fights for April 29 haven’t been set, but Yormark added that card should be the first of “two or three” higher-profile boxing events this year at Nassau Coliseum, the refurbished former home of the NHL’s New York Islanders in Uniondale, New York.
“We’re targeting April 29th as the first fight at the Coliseum,” Yormark, whose company operates Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, said during a recent interview session at the Nets’ training facility. “I can say that. Who the opponents are, we don’t know yet. But the Coliseum certainly will complement our Barclays Center fight program and we’ll be active at both venues for sure. That’s the date we’re holding right now with the commission.”
Forest City Enterprises, a former owner of Barclays Center, began renovating Nassau Coliseum in November 2015. Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holding USA Inc., which owns Barclays Center and the Nets, also owns 85 percent of Nassau Coliseum.
Nassau Coliseum is scheduled to re-open April 5 with a Billy Joel concert.
The venue eventually will be home to the Nets’ D-League team and a minor-league hockey franchise. Boxing also will have a regular place in the venue’s schedule.
Yormark acknowledged that a brewing light heavyweight bout between Long Island natives Joe Smith Jr. (23-1, 19 KOs) and Sean Monaghan (28-0, 17 KOs) would be a perfect fit to headline a card at Nassau Coliseum.
Smith, of Mastic, New York, knocked out Bernard Hopkins in the eighth round of the final fight of the 51-year-old former undisputed middleweight and light heavyweight champion’s career December 17 in Inglewood, California (HBO). Monaghan, of Long Beach, New York, is a rated 175-pound contender who lost to Smith by decision in the New York Golden Gloves 178-pound, novice-division final in April 2008.
“It’d be a great fight,” Yormark said. “Many of the fighters from Long Island already have visited the Coliseum. And they love the direction that we’re taking out there. And no different than we’ve done in Brooklyn, where we’ve had a great outreach to the local fighters in the community and really wanted to give them an aspirational place to ultimately grow their careers.
“We want the same out on Long Island. It’s the same strategy. So having Long Island-based fighters calling the Coliseum home and really being identifiable with the new, renovated venue is just exactly what we want. I’m a venue. I’m not a matchmaker, but if our opening night of boxing out at the Coliseum features some of Long Island’s best, it would ideal for us.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
