by David P. Greisman
A crossroads fight between fan-friendly heavyweights Artur Szpilka and Amir Mansour is presently slated to take place on a Dec. 12 card in San Antonio, according to Ronnie Shields, who trains Szpilka.
The fight would take place on the same show as another crossroads heavyweight bout pitting Chris Arreola against Travis Kauffman.
Szpilka, 26, is 20-1 with 15 KOs and has won four straight since losing a 10th-round technical knockout to Bryant Jennings back in January 2014. Since then, Szpilka outpointed Tomasz Adamek, scored a technical knockout over Ty Cobb, and stopped Manuel Quezada and Yasmany Consuegra.
Mansour, 43, is 22-1-1. The lone loss was in a battle with Steve Cunningham in April 2014. Since then he’s stopped Fred Kassi, outpointed Joey Dawejko, and was held to a draw against Gerald Washington on Oct. 13 in a fight that Mansour believed he deserved to win.
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
