April is just a few days away and that's good news. For boxing fans it's great news because live boxing cranks up with two live cards in our area, including one right here in Carson City.
It starts on Saturday, April 8 with a live amateur card at the Ormsby House, hosted by the Carson City Boxing Club.
"We're inviting teams now to send fighters to the card and we hope to have somewhere around 15 to 20 fights on the card," CCBC Director Chuck Williams said. "We'll know a lot more about who is coming and who is fighting next week, but it looks good for us. I expect we'll have a good, competitive card for our invitational show."
We'll continue this next week. By then, we should have more information about the main event, what local fighters will be in action and lots more ...
-- The following day, Sunday, there will be a live professional card at Harveys in Stateline, featuring a light heavyweight (175-pound limit) title fight. There is a strange twist to this card as it will be closed to the public. This is strictly an "invite only" card with no general admission tickets available for fans, as Harveys is bringing its loyal customers and high-rollers for the card.
I don't know what the prelim fights will be but the main event is for the NABO light heavy title between Troy Weaver and Julian Letterlough. Hopefully, you have some "juice" at Harveys if you want to go and see the card.
-- I also want to note that another live pro card is scheduled on May 6, an outdoor card at the Cal-Neva in Reno. The Cal-Neva puts on these "Street Fight" cards three or four times a year, usually starting in May and ending in September, and they usually bring in some good pros as well as showcasing many up-and-coming fighters. More details as fight time approaches.
-- Carson City's only professional boxer will also be in action in April. Miguel Angel Ruiz fights on April 15th at the Lucky Eagle Indian casino in Rochester, Wash.
"We'll be fighting Don Juan Futrell in an 8-round junior welterweight (140-limit) fight and it will be a tough fight," said Carson City's Steve Reynolds, the manager of Ruiz. "Futrell is 18-1 and he's a good fighter, but we can beat him. This would be a big win for us and a win we need."
Ruiz brings a 24-7 record into the fight. There is no TV for the card, which features Eric Holland fighting Carlos Bojorguez in the main event. The card also features woman boxer Dakota Stone in action.
-- On the TV front, April has its usual menu of fight shows including an April Fool's Day card Saturday on HBO. Interesting main event for that telecast, which is part of HBO's "Boxing After Dark" series and begins at 11 p.m.
That main has heavyweight Razor Ruddock - most remember him from his two fights against Mike Tyson - fighting for one of those minor heavyweight titles against a tough cookie, undefeated Vitaly Klitchko.
This really should be a good fight and although Klitchko figures to beat an over-the-hill Razor, the latter may still be sharp enough to pull off an upset win. The fight card comes from Berlin, Germany.
-- Don't look for the usual ESPN2 Friday night fights this week as they are off for a week, but heck, that's still in March. They resume the first Friday in April and will be on the rest of the month. Those live telecasts usually begin at 6 p.m., but check the listings in Diversions - sometimes they have a later starting time.
Last Friday's ESPN2 telecast featured trainer Teddy Atlas doing double duty. Not only did he have one of his fighters in action on the telecast, Teddy worked the corner, plus he is the regular fight commentator/analyst for those Friday telecasts. He even wore a live microphone so we could hear everything that goes on during and between rounds.
Atlas brought undefeated light heavyweight Elvir Muriqi (13-0) in to showcase him against trail horse Don Sheehan, who was 5-3 going into the scheduled 6-rounder. It was supposed to be an easy win for Teddy's fighter as he builds his record but that backfired on them when Sheehan came to fight for a change.
Not only was Sheehan competitive, he was winning the fight and Muriqi helped him along by getting penalized twice for low blows. He threw plenty and each penalty cost Muriqi a point. When Muriqi nailed Sheehan with another low blow midway through round six, the referee stepped in and disqualified Muriqi, handing him his first loss.
Truth is, at that point, Muriqi was going to lose a decision anyway. But still, it was a rare way to lose a fight so Atlas and his fighter will have to go back to the drawing board and correct some problems before he continues his career.
A quick but exciting main event on that telecast. James Butler of Harlem, N.Y., took on Arthur Allen of Pittsburgh. Butler had Allen- who couldn't take a punch very well and who couldn't punch very hard - go down in the opening round and out in round two at the 2:03 mark of the round. Butler improved his record to 16-1 with 11 KOs while Allen fell to 26-5 with 9 KOs. The fight was in the super middleweight (168-limit) class and the referee was Rudy Battle.
Great name for a referee, If I say so myself ....
Alan Rogers is the Nevada Appeal boxing writer.