After conquering the amateur boxing world and spending the last two years winning their first minor belts, 340 Boxing champs John Jackson, Julius Jackson and Samuel Rogers – all from St. Thomas – are heading to Atlantic City, N.J., to face off against a new round of opponents on ESPN’s popular “Friday Night Fights” card.
Details on who the boxers will be fighting are still being ironed out, but at a press conference held Monday on St. Thomas, 340 Boxing promoter Lesley Comissiong said Rogers and the Jackson brothers have already received the required paperwork from the New Jersey Boxing Commission and are in the process of filling it out so they can appear on the sport network’s March 8 card.
An opponent, Ivan Zigler out of Virginia, had previously been confirmed for Rogers, while another was in the works for John Jackson, but both pulled out after seeing the boxers’ fighting reels on the internet, Comissiong explained.
“They recognize it’s either an undefeated opponent or look at the quality of the fighter, and they don’t want to put their records at risk,” she said Monday. The boxers’ matchmaker, Sampson Lewkowitcz, is still working on filling the gaps but 340 officials said the game plan is still the same: Rogers and the Jackson brothers will be filling three of slots on the six-to-eight fight card.
And they will be ready for the kill when the first bell rings, Comissiong said.
Each boxer will be fighting six-round bouts, with one or two being televised, depending on how the other fights on the card go.
“This means a whole lot,” said 340 Boxing President Jose Rosario during the press conference. “Most of the time for a camp, you might get one boxer on a card, but we’re blessed that all three of our boxers were called to be on the card.”
The industry’s top sports writers will still be in the audience, making the untelevised fights just as important as the televised ones, Rosario added.
The boxers’ training schedule over the past few weeks is as intense as it always has been, but 340 Boxing trainers David Rogers and Susthens Vialet Jr. said Monday that they wanted to cover all of their bases after John Jackson’s September 2012 loss to opponent Willie Nelson in Las Vegas, which 340 officials contend that Jackson won in the ring, but not on paper.
“We learned a lot from that fight in Vegas – it’s changed a lot of things for us this time around,” said Rogers. He said that, along with running and sparring in the gym, the boxers have added swimming to their training regimen. Speaking later, Samuel Rogers said the new routine has made him feel even more ready for the fight, while Julius Jackson said the 340 Boxing camp is in the “best shape” it’s ever been in.
Next month’s fight was previously scheduled for Las Vegas, but was recently moved to the Resorts Hotel in Atlantic City.
Boxing officials said that starting Wednesday, they will be selling raffle tickets that offer a few lucky locals a complete package – airfare, fight tickets and hotel room – for the event. Details about ticket prices and outlets will be announced shortly in the media and on www.340boxing.com.
Comissiong said Monday that the move to the East Coast will give the boxers the chance to appeal to the large number of Virgin Islander living in the tri-state area.
