MY: How is camp? Who have you been sparring with to prepare for the biggest stage of your boxing career?

BG: Incredible! My personal trainer Kyle White has helped put me in the best shape of my life. I have been sparring with a lot of good pros such as Emanuel Nwodo. He is one of the best Cruiserweights in the world. Many fighters have dodged him. He has helped me so much. I think he is the best cruiserweight in the world!

MY: HBO just announced that they will be showing the Amir Khan fight on TV in the United States instead of yours. Is that frusturating to you that they are putting on a British prospect instead of an American fighter in a World Title fight?

BG: Not really. If Khan takes his opponent out early, they will show our fight. I don’t get nervous or care who is against me in the UK because none of them can get in the ring.

MY: Many fans in England are upset that David Haye, an English fighter, is not fighting Maccarinelli and Bobby Gunn—who most of them have never heard of—is getting the match. What do you have to say to those fans?

BG: There are two kinds of people in this world: those who talk about it and those who do it. David Haye was talking about the fight, and he was offered the fight. Then why didn’t he take it? Haye is just hyped up and in reality didn’t want the fight.

MY: You had an 11-year layoff from 1993-2002 what caused such a long layoff?

BG: I had seven or eight fights in that time that for some reason were not picked up. I fought and www.boxrec.com is not showing it! I also had managerial problems in the past.

Wolak, Rainone, and Vazquez victorious at the

Huntington Townhouse finale!

By Matt Yanofsky {Ringside}

The Huntington Townhouse closed its doors to the world of boxing with a six-fight card last night.

In the featured bout, all action Junior Middleweight Pawel Wolak improved to 14-0 {9 Ko’s} after battering Keith Simms 25-14-1 (14 Ko’s}. Simms appeared confident and entered the ring dancing with a bow tie around his neck. As soon as the bell rang, everything changed. Wolak immediately came forward toward Simms, landing many big blows, but he also took a few, and a cut opened up over his right eye. Wolak was able to maintain his forward movement and drop Simms with a left hook. In the second, Wolak continued to tag Simms with power shots and badly staggered him. Simms looked in danger of being stopped. He used multiple clinches to temporarily hold himself up. Wolak continued to press the action and drop the badly beaten Simms seconds before the bell rang. Simms rose to his feet with glassy eyes and wobbly feet, forcing the stoppage at the end of round two.

“Don’t think I can only brawl, I have good boxing ability,” exclaimed Wolak. “I hope to step up in competition and continue to make my fans happy. I will probably be taking a short break from the ring due to the fact that my cuts never properly healed from my fight in December”.

Local welterweight prospect Tommy “The Razor” Rainone improved to 6-0 {1 Ko} after defeating Sammy Ortiz 0-2. Rainone, who had multiple last minute opponent changes elected to fight at 155 rather than be shelved for the night. Rainone used his boxing ability and slick defense to win a mostly uneventful unanimous decision over 4 rounds. Ortiz for the most part refused to trade blows. All three judges scored the contest 40-36 for Rainone.

Heavyweight Wilmer Vazquez, who was a 2004 Venezuelan Olympian, improved to 2-0 {1 Ko} after dominating Mike Jones 3-7 {1 Ko}. Vazquez, who knocked out Drexie James (who came to the table with 15 fights under his belt) in his pro debut, went right back to work. Vazquez was throwing mostly power shots and connecting, but the game Jones refused to go down. Jones was mostly defensive but did offer a few decent left hooks. Vazquez continued his onslaught of power punches until he finally dropped Jones seconds before the bell. All three judges agreed on the score of 40-35 for Vazquez.

“He was tough and had a very good chin. It was good for me to get some rounds in and I will be fighting again shortly,” said Vazquez, who is trained by Hall of Famer Roberto Duran.

Entertaining Junior Lightweight Carlos Macias improved to 3-0 by defeating pro debutant Ray Zaragoza. Macias used his usual aggression while Zaragoza was attempting to out-slick Macias with his defensive ability. Macias continued to press the action while landing some good head and body combinations. Zaragoza had a decent third round by landing jabs and slipping many of Macias’ punches. Macias went right back to work in the fourth by throwing many punches on Zaragoza, who did not throw whatsoever. Judges Carlos Ortiz and Ray Sinsorare scored the contest 39-37 and Judge John McKay scored the bout a shocking 38-38, forcing a majority decision instead of the well deserved unanimous decision for Macias.

Tomasz Kudrowski won his pro debut over Duane White in a very back and forth contest. Both men had their moments in the fight. Kudrowski preferred an all action style like fellow polish fighters Tomasz Adamek and Pawel Wolak while White preferred to box and land combos while moving away. White was able to open up a cut over Kudrowski’s eye during the first round. The second round was very close. Kudrowski may have only had the slight edge due to his heavily aggressive style. Kudrowski finished his debut strongly. During the third he threw and landed some big blows. Kudrowski sealed the deal by nearly dropping White in the fourth round of an entertaining fight. Judges Tony Palloillo and John McKay scored the contest 39-37 for Kudrowski while Judge Carlos Ortiz scored the contest 38-38, making Kudrowski’s pro debut a success via majority decision.

In the evening’s opening contest, Lightweight Dominga Olivo 4-1 earned a tougher then expected unanimous decision victory over Ella Nunez 0-2. Olivo dominated the contest for the first four rounds, landing virtually everything she threw at Nunez. Olivo was dominating the fifth when Nunez landed a shocking right hand that dropped Olivo hard on the canvas. Olivo was able to get back up on wobbly feet as the bell rang to end the round. Nunez surprised the crowd in the sixth, winning the round by electing to box instead of going in to finish Olivo, who still appeared dazed from the big punch she took in the fifth. Judges John McKay and Tony Palloillo scored the contest 57-56 while Judge Steve Circero scored it 58-55.

This was the final show at the Huntington Townhouse. Many fans were saddened to learn that the gorgeous club boxing venue will be torn down to make apartment buildings in the near future. I have attended many club shows, and the Townhouse was by far the nicest and most comfortable facility. Promoter Bob Duffy informed me that his Long Island shows will continue at the Plattduetche Park Restaurant in Franklin Square.

An Interview with Entrepreneur Kelly Perdew

ProElite.com President

Kelly Perdew has the kind of talent that simply can’t be contained. An exciting military career, a winning stint on The Apprentice, and a host of other amazing opportunities have not been enough for this amazing self starter. Each accomplishment he’s made so far led him to keep seeking something even greater and more challenging. He’s found that something as the president of ProElite.com which aims to bring the whole MMA scene together as one community under one major banner.

“We want to be where fans, fighters, and organizations go to find out about MMA, and we want to be the place they live online,” said Perdew about his new position. “We’re all about empowering the fight community and growing the sport. The sport’s on the front end of a big wave, and it’s really about the fighters, and also supporting some of the growing organizations out there. We’re also making a huge attempt to bring great fighting to fans everywhere. We’ll be streaming live events like the ICON sport fights on March 31.”

https://unlimitedfightnews.com/test-site/?p=29

Perdew’s approach is designed to bring all the different facets of the sport closer together. “We’re out to give fans, fighters, and organizations the tools to do everything they want to do in the sport,” he said. “Fans can find out about their favorite fighters, and organizations that want to recruit new fighters and new fans can all communicate with each other. Fighters can promote themselves and try to get sponsors and all that.”

Perdew advocates a coordinated effort to produce some kind of regulations for matchmaking. “There needs to be one kind of consistent ranking system that allows people to see who’s fighting who and why,” he said. “With the UFC it’s sometimes a strange way to pick a champion. It’s like Dana decides who fights who. There needs to be some kind of brackets, and there has to be a ranking capability. Right now it’s not very objective. There should be some rhyme and reason. You could certainly have it be a popularity contest, but it should be based on something that’s more true to the sport like the fighters’ capability.”

Perdew’s incredible background has more than prepared him for the kind of work he’s doing now. “I was president of Eteamz, the largest amateur sports portal in the word,” he explained. “There are 3.1 million sports teams using the site. From professional teams to little leagues to bowling leagues, you name it. If it’s a team sport, we had it, so I understand the dynamics of growing a community. I also have a lot of respect for all the disciplines involved in this sport. The individuals who participate are Olympic in character, and they should be highlighted. That’s what we’re gonna do with Pro Elite.com, and we’ll even highlight the ring girls, too.”

Having been involved in a bit of fighting himself, Perdew can hold his own but still won’t ever battle in the cage. “From the martial arts side, I trained in Judo and Tae Kwon Do, but I’d never step into the cage. In the military and before that I wrestled, I boxed, and I trained in close-quarters combat, but what I enjoy most about this sport is how real it is,” he said. “There’s nothing held back, and it’s you against one other person. It’s just real. People watch it and think what would I do in the ring or in the cage.”

He is also impressed with the complete package each fighter brings to the table for each fight. “You have to look at the fighters as athletes. It’s pretty phenomenal to me to earn any degree of black belt in any of the disciplines and then cross train effectively,” he said. “They have my complete respect and admiration just looking at the amount of training in order to be able to get in that cage. I’ve taken hits in the boxing ring, and I’ve done wrestling, and Tae Kwon Doe, but to have it be MMA, full contact, and almost anything goes, I respect anyone who would do that.”

Perdew spent three years as an active duty soldier in the Army before going through law school and business school at UCLA. He then developed a habit of thinking big and producing results, which makes him a perfect fit at ProElite. “I’m very much the entrepreneur, and the team I work with at Pro Elite is world class. Everyone understands the marketplace, and they all know you need to be credible with whatever you’re doing,” he said. “That’s why we went to Showtime. In six months from having no name, no Web-site, no distribution channel, no nothing we’ve come so far. We’re now a live event company, we have a full social network site, and we’re doing a whole bunch of great things. That’s how fast this team works, and it’s a great challenge to come in and do this.”

The keys to the ProElite.com site are the ease of use, continuous improvement, and the fight streaming service. “I don’t know how familiar a lot of people are with the internet, and what we want to create is a very easy to use system,” Perdew said. “There’s so many things we can offer, and it’s all a matter of getting it to be exactly what they want. All your readers, and anyone who uses the site can personally contact me by going to Kellyperdew.proelite.com, which is my personal fan site. Anybody there can personal message me about what they want to see on site, or even what they don’t want to see. They’ll also be able to see Trigg and Lawler fight, and we’ll show other events they want to see streamed live.”

Perdew explained that all organizations can come together at the site and he even mentioned that he would love to be able to broadcast those UFC fights that don’t get to be seen by Pay-Per-View buyers. “I would love Dana to let us stream live his undercard fights that nobody ever sees,” he said. “Why not charge $39.99 or something to stream the undercard. Also for local smaller promoters who are not on TV and not doing Pay-Per-View this would be great for them. It’s about growing the sport of MMA, growing the fan base, and giving fighters exposure, and it’s also about helping out the organizations out there.”

He noted that the Showtime inaugural event scored rave reviews despite the disappointing final moments. “We had great feedback on the EliteXC fight, and the Showtime subscribers who saw it liked it a lot. Thousands of people tuned in to watch the undercard as well. Unfortunately, we can’t control the fighters, and obviously we can never tell what kind of fights we’re going to get, but even that last fight was pretty exciting,” he said. “Krazy Horse and KJ Noons was a fantastic fight, and Julie Kedzie and Gina Carano were just amazing. They really went at it, and there were so many times Julie could have thrown in the towel, but she just fought back with ferocious heart.”

Although there were some deals in the works he couldn’t talk about, Perdew did point out that the site will run a ring girl contest that starts March 30. Otherwise there will be constant development strengthened by the constant feedback of users.

To learn more about Kelly Perdew please read his biography here: http://unlimitedfightnews.com/KellyPerdewBio.doc