Friday, April 09, 2021

Ballard-Munguia Is Official For April 23rd; Isley Withdraws From April 10th Bout!

Golden Boy Promotions and DAZN have announced that undefeated Temple Hills, MD middleweight D'Mitrius "Big Meech" Ballard will battle former world champion Jaime Munguia on Friday, April 23rd at the Don Haskins Center at the University of Texas-El Paso.  The bout will be for Munguia's WBO Intercontinental Middleweight title and will be streamed live.

Ballard (20-0-1, 13 KO's) was offered the bout when Munguia's original opponent, Maciel Sulecki, suffered an injury in training. Ballard, like Munguia (36-0, 29 KO's), is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.

"D'Mitrius Ballard has been deserving of an opportunity like this for a while now," said Golden Boy Chairman and CEO Oscar De La Hoya.  "This is the chance to finally demonstrate to the world that he's ready for the top guys in the division.  We wish Maciej Sulecki a quick recovery, but we also want to emphasize that Ballard is no mere replacement.  He's a real threat."

"I feel very fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to fight Jaime Munguia," said Ballard. "I feel extremely blessed especially because of the condition the world is now in with COVID-19 and all the issues we are facing.  This is the perfect opportunity to really showcase who D'Mitrius Ballard is and demonstrate my boxing abilities.  I'm going to use this fight to reintroduce myself to the world."

The live stream, on DAZN will begin at 9 PM ET.

Alexandria, VA middleweight Troy "Transformer " Isley will not be on the Saturday, April 10th card at the Osage Casino in Tulsa, OK due to a hand injury.  Isley was scheduled to take on Laquan Evans in a four-round contest on the Joe Smith-Maxim Vlasov undercard.

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