ShoBox Olympians All Make Weight

Fair to say that Gary Russell (pictured) is co-headlining with the debuting Olympians tonight in Indio. (Tom Casino)

INDIO, Calif. (Nov. 8, 2012) – The 12 fighters who will compete on “Night of the Olympians” on Friday, Nov. 9 on a special edition of ShoBox: The New Generation live on SHOWTIME^® (10 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast) made weight on their first attempts Thursday at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif.

In the ShoBox 10-round main event, unbeaten featherweight contender and 2008 United States Olympian Gary Russell Jr. (20-0, 12 KO’s), of Capitol Heights, Md., will be opposed by Roberto Castaneda (20-2-1, 15 KO’s) of Mexicali, Mexico.

Five 2012 U.S. Olympians will fight in separate four-round bouts: heavyweight Dominic Breazeale, of Anaheim, Calif., meets Curtis Tate (4-3, 4 KO’s), of Oakland, Tenn.; cruiserweight Marcus Browne, of Staten Island, N.Y., collides with Codale Ford (2-0), of Fort Gibson, Okla.; super middleweight Terrell Gausha, of Cleveland, Ohio, faces Dustin Caplinger (2-3, 1 KO) of Chillicothe, Ohio; junior middleweight Errol Spence Jr., of Desoto, Texas, takes on Jonathan Garcia (3-3, 1 KO), of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; and bantamweight Rau’Shee Warren, of Cincinnati, Ohio, battles Luis Rivera of Ponce, Puerto Rico (1-2).

The event is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. PT and the first fight starts at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets priced at $25, $35 and $45 are available at the Fantasy Springs Box Office, by calling (800) 827-2946 or online at www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

SHOBOX WEIGHTS: Russell Jr. tipped scale at 126¾ pounds, Castaneda 125; Breazeale weighed 248 pounds, Tate 238; Browne weighed 175¾, Ford 176¾; Gausha weighed 164 pounds, Caplinger 165½; Spence Jr. weighed 149, Garcia 149½ and Warren weighed 117½ pounds, Rivera 117 ¾.

In non-televised fights, Daquan Arnett (8-0, 5 KO’s), of Winter Park, Fla., meets Jeremiah Wiggins (10-0-1, 5 KO’s), of Newport News, Va., in a battle of undefeated junior middleweights in a six-round scrap and Manuel Robles (1-0), of Los Angeles, tackles Tim Ibarra (2-1), of Denver, Colo., in a four-round junior featherweight bout.

OFF-TV WEIGHTS: Arnett 153 pounds, Wiggins 151; Robles 122 pounds, Ibarra 117¾.

What Castaneda said Thursday about his main event clash against Russell:

ROBERTO CASTANEDA

“This is definitely a great opportunity for me to fight a big name like Gary Russell on SHOWTIME. I’d been training for a different fighter, another southpaw with a similar style, for three months but when this offer came along I took it. I’m definitely in good shape and very excited.

“With the preparation I had, I definitely feel I’m capable of winning. Russell is a good fighter, very, very fast, so my plan is to not let him get into a rhythm and dictate the pace.

“I feel I hit hard enough and I know I throw enough punches. I expect to throw 100 punches a round.

“If I win this fight, I can be another Josesito Lopez and we all know what happened to him when he got his first big opportunity.”

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