Atlantic City, welterweight Shamone “The Truth” Alvarez (21-3, 12KOs) will be leaving home to travel across boundary lines into the second largest country in the world to face Laval, Quebec, standout Antonin Decarie (24-1, 7KOs), in Montreal, Canada, this Friday, February 11, 2009. The 10-round welterweight scrap will be held at the Bell Centre in Montreal as ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” main attraction while the co-feature [a fight that could have easily been a main event] pits Montreal’s title contender JoJo Dan (27-1, 15KOs) against Las Vegas, Nevada’s Steve “2Pound” Forbes (35-8, 11KOs), in ten rounds of welterweight action.
The fights will be part of Groupe Yvon Michel’s FAST AND FURIOUS boxing series presented by Casino De Montreal in association with Videotron. “On February 11th, we have an absolutely stacked card featuring some of the best hungry young boxers in Canada,” relayed the president of GYM Yvon Michel.
Ranked #8 by the WBA, Canada’s Decarie is coming off a 10-round majority decision victory over Irving Garcia and is on a quest to show his countrymen that he belongs among the countries top dogs after suffering his only defeat in 2010 by unanimous decision at the hands of Souleymane M’baye. “My goal for 2011 is to join my close friend and stable mate Jean Pascal as a world champion and I know that a victory over Alvarez will open a lot of doors for me,” stated the hungry Canadian.
Alvarez carved out a name for himself on “Friday Night Fights” with numerous appearances and is also familiar with Decarie as they were originally slated to meet in 2009 before Alvarez pulled out of the bout after suffering a knee injury days before the fight. Decarie went on to face replacement Terrance Cauthen who Alvarez had already conquered and found himself in a tough and trying fight until the exhausted Cauthen was stopped with a second to go in the 10th and final round. Southpaw Shamone Alvarez has lost three of five to fighters such as Joshua Clottey, Delvin Rodriguez and Ayi Bruce in his last outing, as he looks to string together enough wins to get back into title contention.
In the evening’s co-main event Stevie “2Pound” Forbes crosses the border with hopes of getting himself back into the welterweight picture as he takes on WBC’s #3 and WBA’s #7 ranked Dan. JoJo, who is coming off a 4th round knockout over Andres Pablo Villafane, after suffering his lone loss by a controversial split decision to Selcuk Aydin, is very confident going in. “Rest assured, I will be victorious on February 11th,” said the welterweight contender.
Worthy of much respect Steve Forbes is the former IBF super featherweight champion and is probably best known as the runner-up on the television reality series “The Contender.” Steve is the more experienced pugilist fighting for multiple world titles against the likes of Oscar De La Hoya and WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto. A victory over the reputable Forbes would be a big step forward towards the glory Decarie seeks while Steve Forbes gears up to show the world he isn’t done.
In other action Canadian prospect Kevin Bizier (13-0, 9KOs) of Quebec, faces his sternest test in former champion Edgar “Dandy” Ruiz (22-8-1, 14KOs), of Los Angeles, CA., by way of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, MEX, in a welterweight eight. Also making appearances on the card are Laval, Quebec, super middleweight Nicholson Poulard (15-3, 7KOs), Red Deer, Alberta, super featherweight Arash Usmanee (10-0, 5KOs), Ottawa, Ontario, featherweight Tyler Asselstine (3-0, 2KOs), Columbian heavyweight Oscar “Kaboom” Rivas (3-0, KO) and lightweight Ghislain Maduma (2-0, KO) of Canada by way of Kinshasa, Congo.
Tickets are available now at the Bell Centre Box Office, evenko.ca or through GYM (514-383-0666) starting at $60.