Hot and Cold Middleweight Lorenzo to Face Khirtsidze on BB King Card
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
New York, NY (February 15th, 2016)– DiBella Entertainment will present an eight bout card of professional boxing featuring top prospects at BB King Blues Club & Grill on Wednesday evening, February 17, 2016. A WBO women’s world title bout will be featuring in the main event on the card.
Hot and cold Dominican New York City middleweight Giovanni Lorenzo will take on the challenge of short but powerful Avtandil Khurtsidze of Brooklyn, New York, by way of Kutaisi, Georgia. Khursidze has held the European Middleweight title, the WBA Inter-Continental Middleweight title, the WBC Silver Middleweight title, the IBO World Middleweight title and lost a 12 round decision for the interim WBA World Middleweight title. Verall Khurtsidze is nine of ten in regional and world middleweight belt fights, but has not been in a belt fight in almost six years.
Lorenzo’s last nine fights read an as an unpredictably crazy lost-won-won—lost-won-lost-won-lost-won in different bouts. His up and down seesaw pro record includes a second round knockout over top rated middleweight Dionisio Miranda, and features 12 round wars with Raul Marquez, Hassan N’Jikam, Felix Sturm, and Sebastian Sylvester. Lorenzo opened his career at 26-0 but has performed hot and cold in the ring ever since, and is hoping to get lucky by trying to outjab Khurtsidze from outside. His record indicates anything can happen. However, Khurtsidze, in bouts viewed by this performer, has consistently gotten inside, gone to work, and eventually broken down his opponents.
At age 36, Khurtsidze, 31-2-2 with 20 knockouts, faces testing time against Lorenzo, age 35, 34-7 with 25 knockouts. Lorenzo won one of two IBF Middleweight world title eliminators, but won none of five regional and world title bouts. He also lost a decision to top ranked Sam Soliman after getting knocked down in the twelfth and final round.
Khurtsidze, whose future and career are on the line, should stop Lorenzo after knocking him down in rounds seven through nine. Lorenzo’s ability to survive will depend on his ability to run and hold form Khurtsidze, and keep him from getting inside. In 2013 and 2014, Lorenzo failed to stop Daniel Jacobs and Gilberto Ramirez from getting inside and got stopped in five rounds or less both times. Lorenzo is coming off a first round win over Jose Antonio Rodriguez in Santo Domingo last October.
Southpaw Amanda Serrano, 26-1-1 with 19 knockouts, Brooklyn, New York, will face Olivia Gerula, 17-15-2 with three knockouts, Winnipeg, Canada, for the vacant WBO World Female Featherweight title, ten rounds at two minutes each. Alejandra Marina Oliveras of Santa Fe, Argentina, the previous WBO Female Featherweight World titleholder, moved up in weight from featherweight to super lightweight to fight for the WBC Female World Super Lightweight title in November 2014 and lost, vacating the WBO Female Featherweight title in the process after not defending it for over a year.
Gerula lost a ten rounder in 2013 in Westchester for the vacant IWBF World Super Featherweight title to Ronica Jeffrey. Gerula is a featherweight, and this is yet another case of Serrano’s corner having to find a fighter in the lower weights to fight her as nobody in the lightweight division wants to. Given Serrano’s power, a stoppage of featherweight Gerula is bound to happen in the middle rounds at some point. Gerula is fighting Serrano in the wrong weight class. Not that it matters. Serrano can beat any female fighter in the world at 130 and 135 pounds hands down.
Super middleweight southpaw Lennox Allen, a Guyana fighter now out of New York, 20-0-1 with 13 knockouts, will fight an eight rounder against veteran Martin Verdin, 21-19-2, with 11 knockouts, Dulac, Louisiana. Better known in MMA circles, Verdin ruined the comeback of former IBA World Light Heavyweight champion Dominic Carter by stopping him in the second round in 2010. Allen is favored to stop Verdin in the middle rounds.
Dominican super lightweight prospect Jonathan Alonzo, 7-0 with four knockouts, is favored to win by six round decision over 5-4 Ricardo Maldonado of Arlington, Washington. Southpaw super lightweight prospect Shemuel ‘The Chosen One’ Pagan, 6-0 with three knockouts, Brooklyn, New York, is favored to win by six round decision over 4-3 Oscar Santana of Pomona, California. Irish Noel Murphy, a welterweight prospect form Woodlawn, New York, by way of Cork, Ireland, is favored to win by six round decision over Donald Sanchez, 2-2, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Ukrainian lightweight prospect Pavlo Ishchenko, 2-0 with two knockouts, is 2012 Olympic Games participant, is favored to win by six round decision over Rafael Vazquez, 2-3, Bayamon, Puerto Rico (no relation to Brooklyn featherweight contender Rafael Vazquez). Undefeated Kazakhstan super middleweight will fight an eight rounder against Bernard Thomas, 5-2, Kansas City, Missouri, and is favored to win by third round stoppage.
For the Broadway Boxing eight bout card on Saturday February 17, 2016, the doors will open at 6:30 P.M., first bout 7:00 P.M. BB King Blues Club & Grill is located at 237 West 42nd Street, New York City, and is accessible via 1, 2, 3, A, C subway lines, Penn Station, Grand Central Station, and is next to Port Authority Bus Terminal. Parking garages are nearby. Broadway Boxing tickets priced $125, $100, $75 and $55. Tables are available, with VIP tables at $1,000 per table for five seats. Ringside tables are $500 for five seats and $375 tables for five seats. Purchase tickets by calling DiBella Entertainment at 212-947-2577.
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