By Shawn Smith
While it may not be the card Lee Baxter Promotions originally had planned, the team has put together an impressive array of talent for their July 28 show at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Ontario.
Headlining will be Hamilton, Ontario’s Steven Wilcox (13-1-1), who will be taking on Juan Bedolla Orozco (12-3-2) of Mexico.
The co-main event will feature Etobicoke, Ontario’s Tim Cronin (7-1-1) against Slovakia’s Kristof Demendi (10-1-2). Also on the card are highly touted Canadian prospects Mladen Miljas and Augistino D’Aluisio, both of them making their debuts.
The card was originally scheduled to feature a main event of Wilcox against Jesus Singwancha, a Congo-born boxer who was pulled from the card.
Irish heavyweight Con Sheehan was also expected to be on the card, but he too was pulled from the card.
Dubbed “The Next Generation” this show is expected to be the beginning of a new series of Ontario shows that will give young fighters, those with 15 fights or less, a platform to perform and grow on their home soil.
“I’ve been trying to put on large shows in Toronto, but we’re having issues with venues; with the cost of venues, it was just unaffordable without having a massive fanbase,” said promoter Lee Baxter. “The city needs a platform for up and coming fighters, so what I did was find a smaller venue that is unique and focus on fighters that aren’t as established.”
Baxter said that while he’d love to run a large venue like Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, he knows that the fanbase simply isn’t there to fill the building, “but if we can build a quarterly show that has 1,000 or 1,500 fans, we can eventually get those bigger crowds.
“We have to get people used to seeing fights in the city on a regular basis.”
Baxter is hoping this series of fights will reignite interest in the sport. Professional combat sports have been nearly non-existent in Ontario, with many blaming the Ontario Athletic Commission for the death of boxing in the province. The OAC has come under scrutiny many times for how they handle combat sports in the province, including much criticism of same-day weigh-ins.
He is hoping to put on “Next Generation” events quarterly to get fans interested in the product.
“What this next generation thing is about is putting local guys against local guys to find out who can really fight, who is a true professional and who takes their career seriously,” Baxter said. “I want to know who isn’t afraid to be matched tough. It’s a testing platform to see who is worth possibly putting money into.”
For tickets, visit Ticketmaster.ca
