After cleaning out his home state of North Carolina and surrounding area, as his own promoter and manager, talented super flyweight Dewayne “Mr. Stop Running” Beamon went out in search of better competition.

The quest, which involved a two-year stop in what he calls “boxing’s wild west” of Tijuana and Mexico City, has finally landed the 33-year-old a WBO #12-ranking and a promoter determined to help Beamon reach his full potential.

On Saturday, June 22, at CSU’s Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio, that promoter, Ejay Matthews of Bigger Than Life Entertainment, will partner with six-time World Champion Miguel Cotto’s Miguel Cotto Promotions and Mo Entertainment to present “Making A Champion,” a six-fight night of world-class boxing featuring Beamon (16-1-1, 11 KOs) taking on former world title challenger and WBO #14-ranked Froilan “The Sniper” Saludar (30-3-1, 21 KOs) from the Philippines in a 12-round showdown for the WBC United States (USNBC) Super Flyweight Championship in the main event.

Making A Champion will be televised live on CBS Sports (11:00 pm ET/8:00 pm PT) and the exciting undercard will be streamed live on   (7:30 pm ET/4:30 pm PT).

Tickets for “Making A Champion” are priced at $30, $40, $65 and Ringside $150 and are on sale now at wolsteincenter.com or Wolstein Center Box Office on CSU campus.

Beamon is a latecomer to boxing, as he wasn’t able to start amateur boxing until the relatively late age of 24.

“Boxing was always my passion. I was born to box, but my parents wouldn’t let me get into it because I was a football and basketball star and that would get me into college. I had a full scholarship all the way through Southern Virginia University. But the whole time I was in school, I was sneaking off to a boxing gym to train at night. If the school found out what I was doing, I could have been kicked out.”

Upon graduating with a B.A. in Family Childcare Development, Beamon finally had his opportunity and immediately made the most of it. A natural talent, in his short amateur career, he won several titles including two national championships and ended with an impressive 48-2 record.

Beamon turned professional in 2015 and quickly tore through his regional competition to the point that he opened his own promotional company, Stop Running Promotions, and started using his own money and putting on his own shows to lure better opponents into the ring in his own main events, many of them for regional championships. In his four-year professional career, Beamon has already held the UBF World Featherweight, IBO International Super Flyweight, UBF World Super Flyweight, IBO Inter-Continental Super Flyweight and UBF World Super Flyweight Championships.

“I’ve always had trouble finding competition in the US,” explained Beamon. “It’s been like that from the start. I got my nickname when I was 33-0 as an amateur and nobody would fight me. Me and my friends used to say, ‘You all got to stop running,’ to my opponents. So, in the pros, I stared promoting my own fights and paying good money for better opponents to come in and fight me. Sometimes I would make money and sometimes I would lose, but eventually it became too much work to train and fight while doing everything to put on the show, so I stopped promoting and went looking for a promoter.”

Beamon says he found a lot more competition in Mexico and signed with a promotional outfit there, but admits it ultimately wasn’t the situation he was looking for.

“I had to keep fighting in other people’s hometowns. I would still knock them out, but it wasn’t the best deal for me. Nobody would fight me 10 rounds and I was getting hit low and head butted a lot, and nobody said anything. I beat one guy and it’s not even on my Box Rec. It was the Wild Wild West.”

That’s when Beamon met up with Matthews, signed with his promotional company and relocated to Las Vegas to work with Joe Vargas and assistant Luis Anthony at Big Shot Boxing.

“Everything is going great now. I love the training in Vegas. I don’t have to travel around to find good work. I’m sparring with (IBF Mini Flyweight) World Champion Deejay Kriel of South Africa right now. I feel like this deal has moved me a lot closer to my dream of winning a world title.

To move forward, Beamon must get through the formidable Saludar, who challenged former champ Sho Kimura for the World Boxing Organisation World Flyweight belt in July 2018 and, in his 10-year career, has previously held the WBO Asia Pacific Youth Flyweight, WBO Asia Pacific Youth Flyweight, WBO Youth Flyweight, WBO Asia Pacific Flyweight, WBO Oriental Flyweight and WBO Inter-Continental Flyweight Championships.

“I know his promoter only deals with good fighters and he was bought up the right way and promoted the right way, but he always failed when it came to title shots. I also know I’m not letting him beat me,” said Beamon of Saludar. “It feels great to fight on national TV for the first time. It’s like a dream come true. In North Carolina, I’m the number fighter in my division and everybody comes to see me fight. But I know if I ever want to be big-time, I have to fight outside my area and I need to put on the kinds of performances that make people remember my name. I want to make Americans care about the super flyweight division again and this is my chance.”

In the second televised main event, Canada’s undefeated Cody “The Crippler” Crowley (17-0, 9 KOs) will take on the United Kingdom’s Navid “Nav” Mansouri (19-2-2, 6 KOs) in a 12-round battle for the WBC United States (USNBC) Super Welterweight Championship.

In other intriguing match-ups, Cleveland’s own Miguel Angel “Silky Smooth” Gonzalez (24-4, 16 KOs) will fight eight lightweight rounds against Africa’s Albinius “Danny Boy Albino” Felesianu (18-2-1, 7 KOs); and in a six-round super lightweight scrap undefeated Montana “Too Pretty” Love (11-0-1, 5 KOs) will face Africa’s also undefeated Tshibangu “Bebe Rico” Kayembe (9-0-3, 3 KOs).

Dmitriy Salita of Salita Promotions proudly announces the signing of undefeated cruiserweight Constantin Bejenaru to a promotional contract.

Bejenaru (13-0, 3 KOs), from Ungheni, in the Republic of Moldova and now living in Brooklyn, is a former highly decorated amateur. He was a 10-time Romanian champion, a Bronze Medalist at the European Amateur Boxing Championships in 2006, a Finalist in the European Union Championships in both 2006 and 2007, and a Gold Medalist at World Combat Games in 2010.

After turning professional in 2012, Bejenaru has gone on to score wide decision victories on ShoBox: The New Generation over previously undefeated Alexey Zubov (10-0, 6 KOs) and Stivens Bujaj (16-0-1, 11 KOs), and in his most recent fight (broadcast on NESN), a decisive points victory over previous world title challenger Thabiso Mchunu (18-3, 11 KOs). In his seven-year career, he has held both the WBC Continental Americas Cruiserweight Title and the WBC International Cruiserweight Championships.

Burdened with promotional problems, the tricky southpaw has been inactive for the past two years, but says he’s returning to boxing with a specific mission: “I am thrilled to be returning to the ring, so that I can continue to pursue my dream of becoming world champion,” said an excited Bejenaru. “I come back stronger and with the same great hunger I have always had to reach the pinnacle of the sport. In the last two years, the cruiserweight division has seen tremendous excitement, with the top fighters competing against each other and a unified champion emerging in Oleksandr Usyk. I look forward to taking on the best and would love to challenge Usyk in the ring.

“I am happy to be working with Dmitriy Salita and Salita Promotions and am confident that he will bring me the opportunities I need in my career. I am ready for any opponent and can promise Dmitriy that I will not disappoint him. Salita Promotions will soon have a new world champion on its roster. For my fans, I come back more powerful than before but with the same exciting, all action style. You can expect to see some very good fights.”

Ukraine-born Salita, who has turned himself into boxing’s best young promoter, partly by unleashing a small army of Eastern European strongmen on the boxing world, says Bejenaru is a welcome addition to his stable.

“I am very excited about signing Constantin Bejenaru, one of the best Cruiserweights in the world,” said Salita. “He has already beaten an impressive roster of top contenders and I am sure will shine when he gets his opportunity to fight for the world title.”

Danish heavyweight hope Kem Ljungquist (8-0, 5 KOs) will face Spanish Champion Gabriel Enguema (10-8, 6 KOs) on June 22 on the undercard of Dina Thorslund’s WBO World title defence at the Forum Horsens in Denmark.

 

“It’s an exciting opponent and a step up for me,” said Ljungquist, who will be fighting over eight rounds for the second time in his career following his unanimous points win over Dominik Musil on May 4 in Frankfurt.

“I was a little nervous before my last fight as it was my first time fighting over eight rounds. I started too slowly, I didn’t push myself as hard as I could and I wasn’t tired at all after the fight. That will not be the case in Horsens.

“Now I know I can easily go eight rounds, I’m going to start at a much higher pace, and I can promise a lot more action. I want to showcase all my tools and prove there is a difference between Denmark’s best and Spain’s best.”

Ljungquist has been working hard to build his name in boxing’s glamour division with the hope of joining the likes of Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, with whom the Danish southpaw has previously sparred, at the top.

“Kem is a good boxer. He has all the right tools to succeed,” said Fury after their August sparring sessions ahead of his fight with Francesco Pianeta.

Eight fights into his professional career and with Enguema in his sights, the Copenhagen-boxer believes the time is right for him to prove his potential as he looks to establish himself as a future man of the heavyweight division.

“It’s now that I have to show that I can create something big,” says Ljungquist. “To show that I can create my own name, and I have no time to waste.

"I always train hard, I eat right and I live my life like a monk. I’m doing something that I love and something that defines me as a human being.

"I don’t want to look back in ten years with any regrets. I want to look back knowing I did my best to be the best, and that’s what I intend to do!”

Ljungquist faces Enguema as part of an action-packed undercard in Horsens, which also features Norwegian cruiserweight star Kai Robin Havnaa, rising featherweight Frederik Hede Jensen, Vejle super middleweight Haris Dzindo and Horsens boxers Michael Nielsen and Amer Rasinlic.

Tickets for Thunder From Down Under: Dina Thorslund vs. April Adams for the WBO Female World Super Bantamweight Championship are available online via or by calling (+45) 70 15 65 65.