Weekend Preview: Keystone Boxing Returns In DC

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by Gautham Nagesh 

As you can see from the fight poster above, pro boxing returns to Washington Convention Center this Saturday night courtesy of Promoter Gene Molovinsky of Keystone Boxing. The show will once again be headlined by local welterweight prospect Dusty “The Beltway Boricua” Harrison and feature a host of talented young DMV boxers including Stiff Jab favorites David “Day Day” Grayton, Danny Kelly, and Kevin Rivers Jr., who will be making his professional debut after a decorated amateur career.

Keystone has drawn well for its recent series featuring Dusty, who suffered a scare in his last fight against Marques Jackson, getting knocked down in the sixth and final round by a right hand. Fortunately, Dusty got up and smartly held on until recovering to win the decision, rendering the knockdown a blip for the moment. I’m predicting an early night for Dusty and basically everyone else on the card, save possibly the light heavyweight co-feature between “King” James McAlister and James Denton, scheduled for six rounds. The poor records of all the other opponents indicate they were brought in for one reason: to lose, and do so in sensational fashion.

Also making his professional debut on the card will be Maryland middleweight Jarrett Hurd, who lost an absolute barnburner to D'Mitrius Ballard in the 2011 Washington Golden Gloves. Hurd knocked down Ballard and lost a close decision, which is no small feat against the 2012 National Golden Gloves champion at middleweight. We expect him to show a touch of that power against Mike Arnold of Akron, Ohio, who enters the ring winless in eight attempts. Former D.C. amateur star Harold “Sweet Lee” Parker will try to recover from his first pro loss, and super middlweight Immanuwel Aleem will round out the card with his second professional appearance.

Apparently they’re all filled up at ringside, but we’ll be in the crowd. Hopefully someone will stand down in front, so we can get at least one solid photograph.

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HBO Show At Foxwoods A Sleeper: Not many are talking about this Saturday’s HBO tripleheader at Foxwoods, not surprising considering the slew of superfights that came just two weeks prior. But this show has real entertainment potential, particularly on a weekend devoid of other marquee fights. Unbeaten Worcester super middleweight Edwin Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs) continues his campaign in the headliner against Jason Escalera (13-0-1, 12 KOs), while the co-feature between Vic Darchinyan and the unbeaten Luis Orlando Del Valle promises to be a barnburner at super bantamweight. Newark’s unbeaten welterweight Alex Perez takes a step up against the once-beaten Antonin Decarie of Quebec, and a solid undercard features heavyweight Sonya Lamonakis, light heavyweight Isaac Chilemba and more.

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Epix has Alexander Povetkin defending his meaningless WBA strap against Baltimore’s Hasim Rahman, who has at best a puncher’s chance…all of the Spanish channels have shows, which generally emphasize action over matchups that would be meaningful for rankings (good for them)…Flyweight McWilliams Arroyo headlines a decdent card in San Juan, Puerto Rico against Ronald Ramos on Thursday night. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be televised stateside. Of course, I hear the Internets may have a solution.

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