Roman Made in Hell Karmazin Faces Keith Holmes on Worcester Undercard

WORCESTER, Mass. (March 27, 2005)—Two-time WBC middleweight champion Keith Holmes will face leading contender Roman “Made in Hell” Karmazin in an IBF junior middleweight championship elimination bout.

Holmes, (39-3 25 KOs) from Washington, DC, reached the pinnacle of his career when he faced reigning IBF middleweight champion Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins in the first round of Don King’s “Middleweight World Championship Series” on April 14, 2001. Holmes lost a hard-fought decision and Hopkins went on to beat the then-undefeated Felix “Tito” Trinidad to become the first undisputed middleweight world champion since Marvelous Marvin Hagler held that distinction in 1987.

Holmes vegetarian lifestyle has enabled him to easily drop down to junior middleweight in his last two fights. He won a majority decision in last appearance against Russian Kuvanych Toygonbayev in Temecula, CA on March 14, 2004.

Karmazin (32-1-1 21 KOs), from Russia now fighting out of LA, may be best none for a fight he was scheduled to participate in that never took place.  He was to have faced The Golden Boy in 2001, before a hand injury caused De La Hoya to cancel. Karmazin’s lone loss came by close decision in his first world title fight for the interim WBC 154-pound crown against Javier Castillejo.

In his last ring appearance, Karmazin’s fight was stopped after four rounds when Jason Papillon was unable to continue after an accidental headbutt in Las Vegas on May 15, 2004.

A scheduled 10-round cruiserweight attraction pits undefeated No. 2 ranked WBC contender Steve Cunningham, (16-0 9 KOs) from Philadelphia, against highly respected veteran and No. 4 ranked WBA contender Guillermo Jones, (31-2-2 24 KOs) from Colon, Panama.

Another former world champion, Lou Del Valle (34-3-1 22 KOs), from the Bronx who held the WBA light heavyweight title and holds the distinction of being the first fighter to knock down Roy Jones Jr. when they met in 1998, will take on local veteran Dan Sheehan, (10-31 4 KOs) from Brockton, in a scheduled eight-rounder.

No. 2 WBC contender Miguel Angel Rodriguez, (25-1 20 KOs) from Naucalpan, Mexico, will take on Luis Maysonet, (32-9 25 KOs) from Hartford in an eight-round welterweight attraction, while undefeated featherweight Elio Rojas, (10-0 9 KOs) from Brooklyn will square off in a six-round match against Angelo Torres, (12-11-3 3 KOs) from Lakewood, Wash.

Doors will open at the DCU Center at 5:30 p.m. with the first bout scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets priced at $35, $50, $100 and $250 are on sale now at the DCU Center Box Office, all area Ticketmaster locations, online at ticketmaster.com, or charge by phone at (617) 931-2000 or (617) 228-6000.

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