Beltway Boxing 2006 Schedule Outlook!

First of all, I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is looking forward to a prosperous and peaceful New Year!

Beltway Boxing fans have a lot to look forward to in 2006. The area has no less than five cards planned for the first 60 days of the year alone. Let’s take a look at the early schedule.

Friday, January 13—BXF of Millersville, MD will have its first show of 2006. Undefeated super middleweight Henry “Sugar Poo” Buchanan of Capitol Heights (12-0, 10 KO’s) is slated to headline the show and undefeated junior welterweight prospect Tyrell Samuel of Baltimore (4-0, two KO’s) is scheduled to be in the co-feature.

Friday, January 20 – Baltimore Pro Boxing will have their first show of the year at the Pikesville Armory. Promoter Jake Smith and matchmaker Josh Hall have announced two bouts for that card already. Undefeated super middleweight Tony “Cyclone” Cygan (9-0, six KO’s) of Middle River, MD will take on Warren, OH’s Billy Lyell (9-2, two KO’s) in an eight-round main event. There will also be a heavyweight rematch between Baltimore’s Jed “The Punisher” Phipps and Dan Whetzel. Phipps (16-3, nine KO’s) won the last bout between the two on December 7 at Martin’s West by scoring a sixth-round TKO. But Whetzel’s cornermen protested vehemently, with one of his cornermen being asked to leave the facility. So the stage is set for the rematch.

Thursday, January 26 – Ballroom Boxing kicks off their 2006 season with what I have been told again will be a solid card. No word yet on who will appear.

Friday, February 10 – Back at BXF for the Valentine’s Day weekend. There is talk that this show will be an ALL-FEMALE card.

Saturday, February 18 – Keystone Boxing (who are also involved with the BXF shows) is promoting what I think will be one of the biggest and best attended shows we’ve had along the Beltway in some time. This is the card that will be at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA and will feature the matchup between “Contender” stars Jimmy Lange (of Great Falls, VA) and Joey Gilbert. This bout will be for the vacant NABO Middleweight title. Also, Lamont "Bay" Pearson of Capitol Heights is slated to defend his USBA Super Featherweight title on this card.

So that is how we START our year! That is quite a beginning, huh? Keep in mind with BXF, Baltimore Boxing and Ballroom Boxing already having their 2006 schedules in place, we will have AT LEAST 20 boxing cards along the Beltway this year. Then you add the possible five cards that Keystone Boxing plans for the Patriot Center and ANYTHING that DC may put out this year, there could be close to 30-35 cards along the Beltway in 2006!

Now that we have talked about what will happen in 2006, let’s look at what we HOPE will happen.

You may have heard that the Beltway is in the running for two interesting bouts in March. DC has been mentioned as a possible site for the March 11 rematch between former world champions Roy Jones, Jr. and Bernard Hopkins. You may remember that the first bout between these two future hall-of-famers took place here in DC at RFK Stadium in 1993. The bout, won by Jones, was the co-feature to the Riddick Bowe-Jesse Ferguson bout.

It is because the first bout was held here, that I think DC is a long shot to get the rematch. If you remember the first bout, it was deadly dull. That was because both men were nowhere close to being the superstars they turned out to be. It would be ironic if DC did get the rematch because now we would be seeing these two well past their superstar status.

Having said that, Hopkins does enjoy boxing in this area. Except for the loss to Jones, the DC area has been very good to “The Executioner.” Hopkins won his middleweight title in this area, defeating Segundo Mercardo at USAir Arena in the co-featured bout on “The Beltway Brawl.”

Meanwhile, March 18 is the date for Hasim Rahman’s defense of his WBC heavyweight championship against James Toney. Baltimore is one of the sites being mentioned for that one. That has possibilities if Toney doesn’t mind coming to Rahman’s hometown. It would be interesting to see if promoters would want to chance having the bout outdoors at either Oriole Park at Camden Yards or M&T Bank Stadium or would they want to use the 1st Mariner Arena. That would probably be the best places to have the bout in Baltimore. I would say Baltimore has a 50-50 shot at getting this one.

If the Beltway could pull off this daily double to add to what will happen by March that would make our year right there!

We indeed have a lot to look forward to in 2006!