Corey “Collateral Damage” Rodriguez (4-1-1) faces Cleveland's Dante Moore (6-0) Friday night in a co-featured bout at the Nautica Pavilion Center in Ohio.
Rodriguez weighed in at 152.5 while his opponent Moore was an even 152 at the weigh-ins earlier today. The Jr. Middleweight featured contest is scheduled for six rounds...

Several Minnesota fighters took part in undercard action at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota, Friday night.
Andy Kolle (22-2, 16 KOs) of Fergus Falls, MN, got the job done in spectacular fashion, stopping Daryl Salmon (16-5, 4 KOs) 1:31 into the first round.
Matt Vanda (43-11, 23) got a third round TKO victory over Jose Medina (15-20, 11 KOs) in an action-filled fight. Vanda, from St. Paul, MN, started round one using solid jabs and right hands to the head and body of Medina. Hector Orozco (3-6, 0 KOs) was stopped by Michael Anderson (7-0-1, 5 KOs) in round 3...

Andy Kolle 158.5 Daryl Salmon 170 (165.5 2 hours later)
Matt Vanda 169.5 Jose Medina 176
Hector Orozco 147 Michael Anderson 149.5
TV bout weights and quotes can be found at www.Fightnews.com

Heavyweight Joey Abell (27-4, 26 KOs) had several fighters on his hit list these past several months. Aaron Lyons (11-9, 8 KOs) wasn't one of the targeted men, but once the fight was set, Abell, a popular Minnesota heavyweight, had plenty of motivation to win.
In 2006, Lyons, 29, was the first fighter to defeat Abell, when the two met at the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia. At that time, the setback was rough on Abell.
"The loss hit me pretty quickly and it was painful," Abell said before the rematch. "I felt like I disappointed a lot of people that night. It was a major letdown to myself and my loyal fans."
On Saturday night at the St. Paul Armory, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Lyons learned a lot can happen in four years, as Abell evened the score with a fourth-round TKO over a fighter, in Lyons, who had previously never been stopped...

Joey Abell (25-4, 25 KOs) has been on a ride these past several months. First, he was set to face an experienced opponent in Francois Botha (47-5-3, 28 KOs) but that fight fell through. Abell turned his attention to Al “Ice” Cole (35-15-3, 16 KOs) in a rematch of their clash in September 2009 in which Cole won a split decision. That fight never happened.
Now, Abell is set to face Aaron Lyons (11-8, 8 KOs) on July 17 at the St Paul Armory in St Paul Minnesota.
“There was a lot of trash talking from the Lyons’ camp after the fight was stopped prematurely and now it’s time for me to shut their mouths.”...

"The Wild Irishman" Darby Smart (10-4) of Chisolm, MN and Minneapolis boxer Hassan "Kato" Wasswa (5-10-3) will finally meet in the ring on July 8th. Unfortunately for MN fans, the fight takes place in Canada. The jaw jacking between the two officially started when Wasswa called out Smart after a bout in 2007. Smart accepted the challenge but a few unsuccessful attempts to pit the fighters against each other never materialized. Wasswa continued to box since then, while Smart stepped away from the sport to concentrate on his family and work outside of boxing.

Historically, Minnesota has been blessed with some of the most talented men to ever lace on a pair of gloves. Fighters from the early glory days such as Mike and Tommy Gibbons, and Billy Miske helped pave the way for standouts like Duane Bobick and more recently Will Grigsby. There is no doubt that Minnesota is at the top of the list for big time fighters going all the way back to boxing's beginnings.
Despite these fighters, and the rest of the past greats, Minnesota as a whole has never officially had a place to honor these men...until now.
One of Minnesota boxing's best kept secrets has been quietly in the works for close to a year now. And today, the Official Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame steps out of those shadows in hopes of bringing some of Minnesota boxing's past legends along with it.
"It has been a long time coming" said MNBHOF board member and well known boxing figure Denny Nelson. "I have been around boxing for a long time and it will be great to finally see these guys receive the honor that they worked so hard for."
Minnesotaboxing.com also had the pleasure of discussing the newly formed non-profit organization with president Jake Wegner and vice president Jeff Flanagan. The two went into great detail in discussing the reasoning behind the MNBHOF, the induction process, the board members, and the yearly induction banquet, which takes place this October and Mancini's Char House and Lounge in Saint Paul...

MN middleweight champ Andy "Kaos" Kolle (19-2, 14 KO's) will headline against veteran Pat “The Cat” Coleman (29-15 20 ko’s) on the earlier mentioned fight card being held at First Avenue in Mnpls on February 5th. Rumors are circulating that it will be a tune-up for a rematch bout with Matt Vanda in the months to come. Kolle spoke briefly to Minnesotaboxing.com about his next fight, stating that he is excited to fight in the twin cities and continue to build on a career best explosive win over Anthony Bonsante last March.
" I don't really know much about my opponent but I know that he is a vet with over 40 fights so he knows what he's doing in the ring" said Kolle. " As with all my fights, I don't really worry to much about what they are going to do. As long as I do me then I shouldn't have any problem with him. Just like always, I have been in the gym 5 days a week since my last fight, doing a lot of sparring and working on some different things so I know I won't have to worry about any ring rust. I am as hungry as I have ever been so I just can't wait to get back in the ring and hit somebody!
The event is being promoted by Midwest Sports Council in association with RDS Company...January 10th, 2010

Referee Bobby Brunette found himself in an unfortunate situation last Friday night as has now been widely reported. The bell to end round one Following a knockdown in the State title fight between Raphael Butler and Joey Abell went unheard by Brunette and many ringsiders, including myself. Confusion was the result and Butler ended up getting knocked out by punches he never saw coming from Abell. Brunette says that he did not hear the 10 second warning or a bell to end the round.
"I was just in there doing my job" said Brunette. " Raphael had been knocked down. I sent Joey to a neutral corner and began to count and look closely to see if he could continue. He told me he could fight and I waived the fighters in to fight. I never heard a bell."
Brunette stated that he noticed Butler's hands were low at the time Abell started landing the punches but that he told both Abell and Butler in the dressing room to protect themselves at all times. To his knowledge, the bell hadn't rung, which in reality it did. It was obvious that Butler did hear the bell as video which is soon to be posted here will show. Butler stops and Abell seems to put a glove up to touch gloves before Brunette instructs the fighters to keep fighting.
" Abell landed two or three big shots and I could see Raphael was hurt. I started jumping in to separate the fighters after Abell landed the first punch. I wasn't sure at the time if I was going to stop the fight or issue a standing eight count but the only thought on my mind at that second was to protect Butler, who seemed hurt" said Brunette. "At that point I still didn't know the bell had rung. I jumped between the fighters not because I knew the bell had rung, but to make a decision on what to do with a hurt fighter. I was doing my duties as a referee as if the fight was still taking place." December 8th, 2009

Right Hand Promotions promoted boxing results from Saturday, Aug. 1st at the Armory in Red Wing, MN...
2001 Golden Gloves champ Wilson Rivera's comeback was spoiled by 18 year old Joel Flores (2-0, 2 KO's) of Michigan in a jr. welterweight battle. Flores was impressive in knocking out the St. Paul fighter who has been out of the ring since 2005.
Jr. welterweight Levi Cortes (2-0) of St. Paul knocked out Bloomington's Felix Martinez in round three.
Gustavo Espinoza stopped Saint Paul's Armando Estrada (0-2) in round two.
Hassan Wasswa (5-8-3) of MN lost a hard fought 4 rd decision to William Hernandez of Chicago.
Danny Figueroa (2-0) of Hastings stopped MN welteweight David Laque (1-1) in round three. Both men showed up ready to brawl as they exited fans with an action packed main event.
August 2nd, 2009