By Lem Satterfield
Southpaw light heavyweight (175 pounds) prospect, Mark "TNT" Tucker, of Eldersburg, Md., will meet Billy Bailey of Bakersfield, Calif., on the June 19 undercard of a Showtime-televised bout between WBA super middleweight (168 pounds) champion Andre Ward, of Oakland, Calif., and, Allan Green, of Tulsa, Ok., at The Oracle Arena in Ward's hometown.
Ward (21-0, 13 knockouts) and Green (29-1, 20 KOs) are meeting as part of the Super Six Super Middleweight World Boxing Classic.
The 22-year-old Tucker (13-0, seven KOs), who will debut under promoter, Lou DiBella, is coming off of December's 10-round, unanimous decision over George Armenta that earned him the USBO light heavyweight title at Tucker's hometown venue of The Westminster Agricultural Center in Carroll County, MD.
icknamed, "Billy Goat," the 32-year-old Bailey (10-7, four KOs) has lost four of his past five fights, including the past two.
Bailey, however, has been stopped only once within his seven losses by Brandon Gonzales in the sixth round in July of 2008.
Bailey was last in the ring for a May, 2010 eight-round, majority decision loss to former light heavyweight contender, Danny Santiago (31-4-1, 19 KOs).
"Billy is a tough guy. He's coming off of a controversial loss to Danny Santiago. He's a very durable guy," said Joe Quiambao, a matchmaker for DiBella Promitons.
Tucker has joined a promotional stable of DiBella that includes WBC and WBO middleweight (160 pounds) and WBC junior middleweight (154 pounds) champion, Sergio Martinez, and, WBC welterweight (147 pounds) titlist, Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KOs), among his stable of fighters.
Tucker-Bailey will be for the fringe NABA Youth belt.
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor for AOL FanHouse and the news editor for BoxingScene.com
