1/23 PBC on SHO - Angelo Leo vs Stephen Fulton (WBO Super Bantamweight Title)

[patscorpio]

Angelo Leo-Stephen Fulton junior featherweight title fight rescheduled for Jan. 23
ESPN


One of the most highly anticipated junior featherweight bouts has finally been rescheduled for next month.

On Jan. 23, Angelo Leo (20-0, 9 KOs) will defend his WBO junior featherweight title against Stephen Fulton (18-0, 8 KOs) in a bout between two undefeated 26-year-olds that was originally scheduled for Aug. 1 but was canceled because of Fulton's positive COVID-19 test.

The fight, announced on Saturday by Showtime, will be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, and headline the first Showtime Championship Boxing event of 2021.

Leo won the vacant title by scoring a unanimous-decision win over Tramaine Williams, who stepped in for Fulton to fight Leo on short notice. The orthodox boxer fought only one time in 2020 after winning four times in 2019.

Fulton has been waiting for this opportunity since he was pulled from that fight. The Philadelphia native fought in January, defeating Arnold Khegai by unanimous decision. He watched the Leo-Williams fight on television while quarantined and said afterward that he believed he'd ultimately get his shot at the title.

"Congratulations to Leo, he did it," Fulton said to Showtime's Brian Custer. "But listen, I'm ready for him. I've been ready. Just be ready to face me when it's time."

ESPN has Fulton ranked No. 8 in its junior featherweight rankings, with the champion at No. 10.

"January 23RD we back in action WBO WORLD TITLE !!!!" Fulton tweeted Saturday night.





The co-main event will feature junior featherweight Raeese Aleem (17-0, 11 KOs) facing Vic Pasillas (16-0, 9 KOs), and Rolando Romero (12-0, 10 KOs) will face Justin Pauldo (14-1, 7 KOs) to open the night.​

 

[patscorpio]

This is a dope card...the main and co main are good fights on paper

It will be great though if Rolly gets tested and upset in the opener lol

 

[reservoirdogs]

This is a dope card...the main and co main are good fights on paper

It will be great though if Rolly gets tested and upset in the opener lol

It already happened, he just got the decision for some reason

Good card, Fulton should win imo, Leo is not bad but gets predictable as the fight goes on, Fulton has more tools

Aleem vs Pasillas is harder to predict to me, both are speedster, based on just the eye test I lean toward Pasillas but an Aleem win wouldn't surprise me either

Winners should meet later? I hope so

 

[Bigblackted4]

We back

 

[patscorpio]

We back

i have a feeling aleem vs pasillas will steal the show..thats the fight im looking forward to the most

 

[Conscious Pilot]

Should be a solid card.

 

[patscorpio]

i wonder if rolly is going to piss ppl off again saturday night lol

 

[Loose]

Solid card and yeah rolly already have a L.

 

[aceboon]

i have a feeling aleem vs pasillas will steal the show..thats the fight im looking forward to the most

Agreed

 

[aceboon]

 

[aceboon]

 

[LauderdaleBoss]

Money Team is back. (although we could do without Rolly's struggle boxing ass)

 

[patscorpio]

 

[Derek Lee]

Rolando Romero: Jackson Marinez Is The Biggest bytch In Boxing!
By Keith Idec

Published On Fri Jan 22, 2021, 01:43 AM EST

UNCASVILLE, Connecticut – Rolando Romero reiterated Thursday that he wanted to fight Jackson Marinez on Saturday night, not Justin Pauldo.

In Romero’s mind, Marinez squandered his chance for the rematch that the WBA ordered following Romero’s controversial victory over the Dominican contender August 15. Romero already is convinced that he deserved to win their 12-round, 135-pound fight five months ago at Mohegan Sun Arena, the same venue where he’ll make the first defense of his WBA interim lightweight title against Pauldo.

But now that he’ll oppose Pauldo in the opener of Showtime’s tripleheader and Marinez is scheduled to face former IBF lightweight champ Richard Commey on February 13 in Las Vegas, Romero thinks their issue is resolved.

“He didn’t wanna fight me,” Romero told BoxingScene.com. “We tried to make the rematch. The WBA ordered a rematch. My promoter was excited for the rematch. My manager, my team, myself, my pops, we all wanted the rematch, and he decided to go off and fight Commey instead.”

Marinez maintains that he was only offered the Romero rematch after he had signed a contract to meet Commey in the co-feature of an ESPN telecast February 13 from MGM Grand Conference Center. According to Marinez, he received an official offer to fight the undefeated Romero again December 18, two days after he arrived at trainer Robert Garcia’s gym in Riverside, California, to begin camp for the Commey fight.

Multiple sources informed BoxingScene.com that Marinez (19-1, 7 KOs) was offered at least $20,000 more for the Romero rematch than he’ll earn for the Commey bout. None of that matters, Marinez contends, because he had already signed a contract to square off against Ghana’s Commey (29-3, 26 KOs), who will fight for the first time since Teofimo Lopez knocked him out in the second round of their December 2019 fight at Madison Square Garden.

“That was a slap in my face because I didn’t have enough time to prepare in camp,” Marinez told BoxingScene.com. “If he wanted to offer me the rematch, he could’ve offered it to me a few weeks earlier. When they offered me the rematch, I already had signed the document to face Richard Commey. They were aware of that. That’s why they offered me the rematch. And they offered me the rematch with not even a full month of camp to prepare to fight ‘Rolly.’ So, I felt very humiliated and disrespected.”

Romero refuted Marinez’s timeline regarding how the negotiations unfolded. The brash Romero, who is promoted by Floyd Mayweather’s company, insists that Marinez was aware of his team’s offer before December 18 and could’ve taken their rematch prior to signing a contract for the Commey bout.

“He says we only gave him a month, but I’ve had my opponent for about six weeks now,” Romero said. “So, it doesn’t correlate to a month, what he says. He is a liar and he is a p-ssy, and that’s how it is.”

What’s indisputable is that the result of their first fight warrants a rematch.

Romero won a unanimous decision because all three judges – Glenn Feldman (116-112), Frank Lombardi (118-110) and Don Trella (115-113) – scored their fight for him. Lombardi outlandishly scored 10 of the 12 rounds for Romero, who had difficulty dealing with Marinez’s movement, speed and counter-punching ability.

The rugged Romero was the aggressor throughout their bout, however, and mostly kept Marinez on his back foot. Nevertheless, CompuBox credited Marinez for landing 17 more punches overall and Showtime’s broadcast team heavily criticized the official result.

Five months later, Romero ripped Marinez for not fighting him again.

“What I’m trying to say is you’re getting paid more money,” Romero explained, “you’re getting a belt against somebody you believe you beat, and you don’t take that fight? There’s something wrong with that. There’s something completely wrong with that. You, Jackson Marinez, are the biggest bytch in boxing. You are the biggest bytch in boxing.”

An annoyed Romero isn’t interested in revisiting their rematch at a later date, either.

“We gave him the opportunity,” Romero said. “He can go f--k himself! We offered him more money, we offered him a title shot against someone he believes he beat. He is a bytch!”

The 25-year-old Romero has a lot less conviction about Pauldo, an opponent he said he hasn’t seen fight. The 12-round bout between Las Vegas’ Romero (12-0, 10 KOs) and Houston’s Pauldo (14-1, 7 KOs, 1 NC) will be the first of three fights Showtime will air, starting at 9 p.m. EST and 6 p.m. PST.

In the main event, Albuquerque’s Angelo Leo (20-0, 9 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBO junior featherweight title against Philadelphia’s Stephen Fulton (18-0, 8 KOs), Leo’s mandatory challenger. Following Romero-Pauldo, Showtime will televise a 12-round, 122-pound bout in which Ra’esse Aleem (17-0, 11 KOs), of Muskegon, Michigan, and Vic Pasillas (16-0, 9 KOs), of Redwood City, California, will fight for the WBA interim super bantamweight championship.

Marinez expects Romero, who is consistently listed as a 5-1 favorite, to tear through Pauldo. Unlike Romero, Marinez still would welcome a rematch, particularly if he is given what he considers an appropriate amount of time to train.

“If I get the opportunity to fight Rolando, let’s run it,” Marinez said. “But if not, that’s not my priority anymore because I believe winning against Richard Commey takes my career to another level. At the end of the day, let’s compare the opponents. Let’s compare the opponent I’m fighting and let’s look at the opponent Rolando is facing. They’re at two different levels. I’m advancing to fight the best of the best, a former world champion. And Rolando is just cherry-picking. He’ll win Saturday night by knockout, of course.”

Rolly

 

[patscorpio]

Stephen Fulton-Angelo Leo/Showtime Weigh-In Results From Mohegan Sun
By Keith Idec

Published On Fri Jan 22, 2021, 12:06 PM EST

UNCASVILLE, Connecticut – Stephen Fulton felt a sense of relief when he stepped on the scale early Friday afternoon at Mohegan Sun.

Five months after he was supposed to square off against Angelo Leo for the WBO junior featherweight title, Fulton finally weighed in for their 12-round, 122-pound title fight. The last hurdles Fulton and Leo must overcome are their final COVID-19 tests, which were administered after they made weight for the main event of a Showtime tripleheader Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena (9 p.m. EST; 6 p.m. PST).

Leo, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, stepped on the Mohegan Tribe Department of Regulation’s scale at 121.4 pounds. Philadelphia’s Fulton officially weighed 122 pounds.

The 26-year-old Leo (20-0, 9 KOs) will make the first defense of a WBO belt he won by beating Tramaine Williams by unanimous decision August 1 at Mohegan Sun Arena. Williams (19-1, 6 KOs, 1 NC), a southpaw from New Haven, Connecticut, took that fight on three days’ notice, in the immediate aftermath of Fulton failing a COVID-19 test July 29.

The 26-year-old Fulton (18-0, 8 KOs) is the mandatory challenger for Leo’s title. He was contractually guaranteed his title shot once he was forced to withdraw from their August 1 bout.

Three of the other four fighters scheduled to appear on Showtime also made weight Friday.

Ra’esse Aleem (17-0, 11 KOs), of Muskegon, Michigan, came in at 121.6 pounds for his 12-round fight against Vic Pasillas (16-0, 9 KOs). Pasillas, a southpaw from Redwood City, California, weighed 122 pounds.

Aleem, who is ranked second, and the eighth-rated Pasillas will fight for the WBA interim super bantamweight championship.

Moments earlier Friday, Rolando Romero officially weighed 134.2 pounds for his 12-round lightweight fight versus Justin Pauldo. Houston’s Pauldo (14-1, 7 KOs, 1 NC) stepped on the scale at 138.6 pounds, more than three pounds over the contracted limit for their bout.

Pauldo was given two hours to come back to the scale at 136 pounds, or the fight could be canceled.

Las Vegas’ Romero (12-0, 10 KOs) will make the first defense of the WBA interim lightweight title he won August 15 in controversial fashion. Romero, who is promoted by Floyd Mayweather’s company, defeated Dominican contender Jackson Marinez (19-1, 7 KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-round bout at Mohegan Sun Arena, but that result was widely disputed by fans and media.