Stevenson – George rescheduled for October 12–Fight on Wealth TV


According to Dan Rafael the twice postponed Super Middleweight eliminator between Adonis Stevenson and Donovan George will now take place on October 12th and will be shown Live in America on Wealth TV.

“He was in the airport all day on Monday, but he’ll show up at the fight,” Warriors Boxing promoter Leon Margules said. “He couldn’t make it from Chicago but I was able to make it from South Florida out of a tropical storm (Isaac). Go figure.

“I saw Adonis at the press conference and he looks like he’s in good shape and he said that his hand is better. Don is excited about the fight. It’s a fight he’s wanted for a long time and it’s a fight that we believe he will win. After the Miranda fight, Don was back in the gym Monday morning.”

“We are very excited about this fight between Adonis and Don George. I believe that outside of a world championship fight that it is the best fight that can be made at 168 pounds,” Said Stevenson’s promoter Yvon Michel said. “Everybody (ahead of George in the IBF’s rankings) turned down the opportunity to fight Adonis Stevenson but Don took the fight. So we know he is confident. These guys are both bangers. They are both very confident. Adonis knows there is no tomorrow. It has been so difficult to get him a title fight and hard to get him an opponent for this fight, but the winner gets to fight for a world championship.

“I’m expecting Adonis to be at his best and that is not good news for Donovan George.”

As for Stevenson’s hand, Michel said he continued to train after the fight was postponed but did not use his left hand. He will begin to use it with authority this week.

“He was very determined and he worked every day at his physical therapy,” Michel said. “He did everything he had to do and now, starting at the end of this week, he will start using his left hand in training.”




Dionisio Miranda Steps in to Face Donovan George on Friday Night Fights Season Finale

Colombian Dionisio Miranda (21-7-2, 18 K0s) will step in to face Chicago’s Don “Da Bomb” George (22-2-1, 19 KOs) in the 10-round super middleweight co-main event of the ESPN Friday Night Fights 2012 series finale (10 PM Eastern on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3) presented by Warriors Boxing and Tony Holden Productions, scheduled for Friday, August 17, at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma.

George’s original opponent, Adonis Stevenson, has been forced to pull out of their 12-round elimination bout with a hand injury.

The other 10-round co-main event battle between top junior middleweight contender “King” Carlos Molina (19-5-2, 6 KOs) and Miami’s Damian “Devo” Frias (19-4-1, 10 KOs) will go on as scheduled.

Miranda, a veteran who has notable wins over Lujuan Simon and Sebastian Demers, has been on the short end of competitive big fights with Peter Quillen, Roman Karmazin and Renan St Juste. A big puncher who comes to fight, he could create problems for George.

“Adonis Stevenson injured his left hand in sparring last Friday,” said a disappointed Yvon Michel, President of Groupe Yvon Michel, Stevenson’s promoters. “The next day he went to see a doctor who diagnosed a severe bruise and major swelling. Adonis was not able to close his hand and make a fist. Treatments were done in hopes of improvement but there was not enough progress and under the doctor’s advice it was decided to pull Adonis out of his fight.”

According to Michel, Stevenson is now in Montreal receiving treatment. The IBF super middleweight title eliminator will be rescheduled for early this fall.

“Team Stevenson and GYM are very disappointed for all the inconvenience this situation has created for ESPN and their programming director, Doug Loughrey, to Warriors Boxing and their president, Leon Margules, and to Tony Holden and the Buffalo Run Casino and Resort. Everyone was so cooperative to make this fight happen. And to all our partners in Canada who were diligently working to program and sell this fight on PPV on short notice, and also to Team George who has carefully prepared for this important encounter. We wish him good luck on Friday.”

Warriors Boxing President, Leon Margules, says he’s disappointed by this turn of events, but is confident the event will still generate action worthy of the finale of the outstanding 2012 season of Friday Night Fights.

“Donovan is obviously disappointed by this, but we all know these things happen in boxing. We wish Adonis Stevenson a speedy recovery. But what we still have in this event is a compelling junior middleweight fight between two top-tier guys with reputations for pulling off upsets and we’ve got Donovan George against a Columbian slugger with a difficult style to figure out. So, as sad as we all are about what happened, we still have a good challenge in front of us this Friday and we’ll be ready.”

###

Tickets are priced from $35.00 to $65.00 and are available at the Buffalo Run Casino Box Office or online at stubwire.com.




Stevenson – George eliminator headed to ESPN 2 Finale on August 17th

Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that the IBF Super Middleweight elimination bout between Adonis Stevenson and Donovan George will headline the ESPN Friday Night Fights season Finale on August 17th most likely in Miami, Oklahoma.

The bout was ticketed to be the co-feature to the August 11th INF Light Heavyweight title bout between champion Tavoris Clous and Jean Pascal until Pascal last week pulled out with a hand injury.

There where rumors that the fight would stay in Showtime as part of a special edition of Sho Box but after some fallouts for the ESPN Finale, the date became available.

Opening the card will be junior middleweight contender Carlos Molina (19-5-2, 6 KOs) against Damian Frias (19-4-1, 10 KOs) in a scheduled 10-rounder.

“We’ve been trying to get Carlos a premium cable fight, but he has to do this to keep busy because none of the top guys are looking to fight him,” said George’s promoter Leon Margules.

“Chicago has a 20-day rule where you can’t file for a permit to put on a boxing show inside 20 days of the event,” Margules said. “I didn’t even know the rule existed until I was filling out the permit form. So it looks like we’re going to Buffalo Run, which is a nice site where they have had a lot of boxing shows.”

“It was able to happen because Yvon is my dear friend and he was very reasonable and fair in terms of negotiations to move this fight,” Margules said.




Stevenson – George headed to Sho Box

After the hand injury suffered by former Light Heavyweight champion Jean Pascal that forced the postponed the fight with IBF champion Tavoris Cloud, the potentially explosive co-feature pitting Adonis Stevenson and Donovan George will be rescheduled quickly as per Dan Rafael of espn.com

The fight was to take place on August 11th in Montreal could land in late August or Early September and the winner will be in line to face IBF champion Carl Froch




WITH TITLE SHOT LOOMING ANDY LEE PULLS OFF OF ST. PATTY’S DAY CARD ; Edwin Rodriguez – Donovan George added to card

New York, NY – (1/6/2012) – At the press conference last week in New York City to announce DiBella Entertainment’s HBO Championship Boxing St. Patrick’s Day card at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Andy Lee, who was slated to fight in the televised co-feature bout of the evening, stated, “I want to thank Lou (DiBella – Lee’s promoter) for letting me showcase myself on this show. There is nothing more I can wish for then to have this opportunity to fight at MSG on St Patrick’s Day.”

After seeking an opponent for the past two months and not being able to come up with anything suitable, Team Lee has announced that they will be coming off the card, and now it is rumored he could be the next opponent for WBA Middleweight Champion Felix Sturm.

“It is with great regret that I have to withdraw from the March 17, St Patrick’s Day Promotion at MSG Theater,” stated Lee. “Unfortunately due to the unavailability of a suitable world ranked opponent Team Lee have collectively decided it is in my best career interest to pass on a fight on this occasion. I would like to thank my promoter, Lou DiBella and HBO for planning to have me on the card and for their efforts to secure a suitable opponent for me from the limited boxers available.”

While it would have been a special treat for the and Irish community to see Lee showcase his skills on the 17th, Lee feels that his time for a world title opportunity is now, and while he wanted to be part of what is expected to be a spectacular event at The Garden when Sergio Martinez defends his Middleweight Championship Crown against Ireland’s top-rated middleweight contender Matthew Macklin, he now has his sights set on pursuing the fight with Sturm. Sturm has a tentative date schedule in Germany for April 13th.

New York, NY – (1/6/2012) – At the press conference last week in New York City to announce DiBella Entertainment’s HBO Championship Boxing St. Patrick’s Day card at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Andy Lee, who was slated to fight in the televised co-feature bout of the evening, stated, “I want to thank Lou (DiBella – Lee’s promoter) for letting me showcase myself on this show. There is nothing more I can wish for then to have this opportunity to fight at MSG on St Patrick’s Day.”

After seeking an opponent for the past two months and not being able to come up with anything suitable, Team Lee has announced that they will be coming off the card, and now it is rumored he could be the next opponent for WBA Middleweight Champion Felix Sturm.

“It is with great regret that I have to withdraw from the March 17, St Patrick’s Day Promotion at MSG Theater,” stated Lee. “Unfortunately due to the unavailability of a suitable world ranked opponent Team Lee have collectively decided it is in my best career interest to pass on a fight on this occasion. I would like to thank my promoter, Lou DiBella and HBO for planning to have me on the card and for their efforts to secure a suitable opponent for me from the limited boxers available.”

While it would have been a special treat for the and Irish community to see Lee showcase his skills on the 17th, Lee feels that his time for a world title opportunity is now, and while he wanted to be part of what is expected to be a spectacular event at The Garden when Sergio Martinez defends his Middleweight Championship Crown against Ireland’s top-rated middleweight contender Matthew Macklin, he now has his sights set on pursuing the fight with Sturm. Sturm has a tentative date schedule in Germany for April 13th.

Fighters discussed included Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin; former title challenger Martin Murray; and George, who would have met Lee at a catch weight of 164 pounds.

“Due to the unavailability of a suitable world-ranked opponent, Team Lee have collectively decided it is in my best career interest to pass on a fight on this occasion,” Lee said. “I would like to thank my promoter, Lou DiBella, and HBO for planning to have me on the card and for their efforts to secure a suitable opponent for me from the limited boxers available.”

DiBella told ESPN.com that another reason Lee (27-1, 19 KOs) is off the show is because there is a possibility he could challenge 160-pound titlist Felix Sturm (36-2-2, 15 KOs) in Germany on April 13, although Sturm may wind up facing mandatory challenger and interim titlist Gennady Golovkin.

“Andy wanted a bigger fight,” DiBella said. “He didn’t want to put all his high rankings in the organizations at risk for a fight that wasn’t a big fight and, simultaneously, the possibility of Sturm also arose. He wants to pursue a bigger fight instead of a low-budget risk fight.”