Following up on his impressive knockout of
former World title challenger Rubin Williams this past March,
2004 Olympic Gold Medalist
Andre Ward looks to take that next big step towards a
World Championship when
Goossen Tutor Promotions in association with the
Cayman Islands Department of Tourism presents
“Cayman Knockout:
Championship Boxing” from the wonderful Caribbean.
The event on Friday night,
June 20, 2008 will be televised on
SHOWTIME (“ShoBox:
The New Generation”).
Originating from the beautiful outdoor
Truman Bodden Sports Complex
in the capital
George Town on
Grand Cayman, the ShoBox telecast
will feature a 12-round NABO Super Middleweight Championship
Bout between undefeated Andre
“S.O.G.” Ward (15-0, 10 KOs) and former Olympian
Jerson Ravelo (18-2,
12 KOs); and in another featured bout, World ranked
heavyweight Eddie Chambers
(30-1, 16 KO) takes on hard-hitting 6’4,” 260 pound knockout
artist, Raphael Butler
(30-4, 23
KOs) in a 12-round USBA Heavyweight
Championship Bout.
“This is a groundbreaking event for the
Cayman Islands,” Minister of Tourism,
Environment, Investment & Commerce
Charles Clifford
proclaimed. “We believe that with a professional boxing event
of this magnitude, along with the sophisticated elegant charm
of our country and residents, we will showcase to the
worldwide television audience what we’re so proud of; and what
better way to do this than by bringing Championship Boxing to
the
Cayman Islands. We are very excited to be
hosting this momentous event and we look forward to working
with Goossen Tutor Promotions and SHOWTIME on this historic
occasion.”
The Cayman Islands – comprised of Grand
Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman -- is located in the
center of the Caribbean, situated south of
Cuba and west of
Jamaica. A
British
Overseas
Territory, English is the official
language for the population of 50,000 representing more than
100 nationalities. Come the week of the event, elite
World-class boxers will share the spotlight with the pure
white sands and sky-blue waters of the
Cayman Islands, inspiring each boxer to
have his hand raised in victory in this beautiful country!
Ward,
America’s sole Gold Medalist in
the 2004 Olympics in
Athens,
Greece, brings a string of five
consecutive knockout victories into his match up against
Ravelo. The 24-year old
Oakland,
California native is coming off a
seventh-round stoppage against the rugged veteran Ruben
Williams last month. Prior to that bout, he stopped
then-unbeaten rising star Roger Cantrell.
Ravelo is a 30-year old from the
Dominican Republic and a former
participant in the highly successful “The Contender” boxing
series, and currently resides and fights out of
Newark,
New Jersey. He earned an impressive,
unanimous decision win over undefeated Paul Buchanan in the
UK in his most recent bout, following on
the heels of a highly competitive loss to highly-regarded and
World ranked contender Allan Green. At 6’2,” Ravelo stands to
be the 6’1” Ward’s first taller and toughest professional
challenge.
The Chambers-Butler contest stands to
provide some real intrigue. How will the Philadelphia-trained
Chambers respond to his first career loss at the hands of the
#1 World ranked Russian, Alexander Povetkin, in Germany three
months ago in a Bout in which a win would have made him the
mandatory challenger to IBF and WBO World Champion Wladimir
Klitschko A fight that Chambers was winning early simply
slipped out of his hands by letting the aggressive Povetkin
outwork him.
Butler, the 24-year old pride of
Rochester,
Minnesota has won his last five bouts after
losing to then undefeated Art Binkowski, whom
Butler managed to knock down three times in
the first round but could not finish him off. Well ahead on
all scorecards at the time of the 8th round
stoppage,
Butler said “lesson well learned” and
promises not to let sure victory slip away again. With his
five recent wins,
Butler believes he’s ready to step up
against a top ten opponent such as Chambers.
“It’s not too often that the location of
an event can be as big a story as the fighters and fights
themselves,” promoter Dan
Goossen explained. “But that’s exactly what we have
here. Look at virtually every major
Las Vegas resort and casino, and you can be
sure Championship Boxing helped put each on the map, and it
still holds true today. The fans not only
get to see rising stars such as Ward and Chambers, but also a
great event with the beautiful Cayman Islands as a back drop;
a vacation paradise in the middle of the Caribbean.“We
look to provide an exhilarating experience of great fights to
the Cayman Islands residents and tourists sitting ringside,”
Goossen continued, “but also to the SHOWTIME television
audience where the
rough and tumble world of boxing collides with the lush
scenery of one of the Caribbean’s – if not the world’s – most
spectacular places – the Cayman Islands.”
Ticket information along with boxing travel
packages to the
Cayman Islands will be following soon,
including the remainder of the undercard bouts.
