Uncasville, CT – The stakes have never been higher as two of boxing’s brightest stars go for gold at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Championship Jackpot, presented by CES Boxing, features two prestigious title bouts as both the WBC Silver bantamweight and super welterweight belts are up for grabs Saturday, April 22, 2023.
Super bantamweight Tramaine Williams of New Haven, CT, faces Oklahoma City’s Elijah Pierce in the 10-round main event for the vacant 122-pound strap while Stamford, CT, super welterweight Chordale Booker battles Daniel Aduku of Accra, Ghana, in the eight-round co-main event for the vacant 154-pound title.
Tickets for Championship Jackpot are available online at CESFights.com or MoheganSun.com or at the Mohegan Sun box office. First bell is 6 pm ET.
The event also features the highly-anticipated return of several Connecticut standouts, including female welterweight Stevie Jane Coleman of Columbia, featherweight Nathan Martinez of New Britain, electrifying super lightweight Mike Kimbel of Waterbury, East Hartford welterweight Jeff Gonzalez, and pro debut cruiserweight Slawomir Bohdziewicz, a two-time New England Golden Gloves champion.
Nicknamed “The Mighty Midget,” the 5-foot-4 southpaw Williams (20-1, 6 KOs) steps back into the ring for the first time since August with the opportunity to add another title to his trophy case. In 2019, he captured the USBA and NABO super bantamweight titles in a win over Yenifel Vicente, which led to a 2020 world championship showdown against undefeated Angelo Leo, also at Mohegan Sun.
Williams last appeared for CES in June of 2019, defeated Neil John Tabanao by unanimous decision, and faces a tall order April 22 against the dangerous Pierce (16-2, 14 KOs), a hard-hitting 5-foot-8 southpaw best known for wins over unbeaten prospects Irvin Gonzalez and Jesse Garcia. Pierce last fought in November in his hometown of Oklahoma City and stopped Juan Carlos Pena in the second round of a scheduled six-round bout, capping a wildly-successful in which he won all five of his bouts to extend his win streak to seven in a row.
Booker steps back into the ring April 22 hoping to collect his first piece of championship hardware – the same belt once held by pound-for-pound great Canelo Alvarez in 2020 – following a win over tough veteran Angel Hernandez at CES’ Winter Brawl event at Mohegan on January 21. Having successfully rebounded from his first career loss in April of 2022, Booker faces the 33-year-old hard-hitting Aduku (15-2-1, 11 KOs), who will make his United States debut less than a month after his most recent win in his home city of Accra.
Managed by Paul Guarino of PG Sports, the 31-year-old Booker is confident he’s entering his prime years despite getting a late start on his professional career; he started boxing at the age of 19 and turned pro five years later at 24. The unwavering support of his fans has been a major source of motivation. Booker fought in his home state of Connecticut for the first time in 2021 and has since been a fixture under CES with April 22 marking his third appearance with the promotion in his last four fights.
On the Championship Jackpot undercard, unbeaten super welterweight Anthony Velazquez (12-0, 11 KOs) of Springfield, MA, battles California’s Rashid Stevens (6-1-1, 5 KOs) in an eight-round bout and Port Chester, NY, super bantamweight Carlos Vanegas Nunez – one of the newest members of the CES stable – makes his promotional debut in a six-round bout against Irving, TX, native Dominique Griffin (4-3-2, 2 KOs).
With both a professional boxing and a professional mixed martial arts bout under his belt in 2023, the fast-rising Kimbel (1-0, 1 KO) returns to the squared circle April 22 in a four-round bout against Pawtucket, RI, super lightweight Dahvon Shelton (1-1), who steps back into the ring for the first time since 2018. Coleman (4-1, 1 KO) puts her four-fight win streak on the line in a six-round bout against 14-fight veteran Josefina Vega (9-5, 4 KOs) of Ecuador.
Fresh off a win on March 25, Gonzalez (2-0) returns to his home state to battle Providence’s Yeison Berdugo, an experienced Muay Thai fighter for Lion Fight Promotions who is now making his professional boxing debut. Martinez (7-2, 2 KOs), a dynamic featherweight prospect, returns for the first time since November of 2021 when he faced Puerto Rico’s Jayron Santiago Lopez, while Ofacio Falcon (9-0, 6 KOs), an undefeated super featherweight from the Bronx, makes his promotional debut April 22.
A Western New England Golden Gloves and New England Golden Gloves champion in 2022, Bohdziewicz faces Max Weslei Da Silva of Woburn, MA, in a four-round bout.
For more information, follow CES Boxing on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @CESBOXING.
INFORMATION
CES Boxing is one of the top promotions in the northeast and one of the few to successfully promote both mixed martial arts and professional boxing. Launched in 1992 by longtime boxing judge Jimmy Burchfield Sr., the promotion is the only in professional boxing to boast two reigning WBC Youth world champions in lightweight Jamaine Ortiz and featherweight Irvin Gonzalez. CES Boxing recently teamed with UFC FIGHT PASS, the world’s No. 1 streaming platform for combat sports, to showcase its events to a worldwide audience, and worked as a promotional consultant for the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. pay-per-view event in November of 2020.
Mohegan Sun Arena is one of the busiest Arenas in the United States and is ranked consistently among the top venues in the world according to Billboard Magazine, Pollstar and VenuesNow. Mohegan Sun Arena finished 2021 with its first “#1 Indoor Arena” ranking for its capacity in the world according to Pollstar and VenuesNow, ranked among the top 10 venues in the United States regardless of size based on ticket sales, and was named “2021 Innovator of the Year” by Celebrity Access for its ViacomCBS residency. In recent years, the award-winning venue has also been the “#1 Casino Venue in the World,” “#1 Social Media Venue in the World” and a seven-time national award winner for “Casino of the Year – Arena” by the Academy of Country Music. For more information on concerts and other great events, visit MoheganSun.com. For information on this week’s schedule, call the Entertainment and Special Events hotline at 1.888.226.7711.