Boxing Odds and Ends: An Auspicious ‘ShoBox’ Debut and More

Last night’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” tripleheader on SHOWTIME was assembled hastily and didn’t get its usual amount of advance hype. Anchored in Topeka, Kansas, the show, promoted by Lou DiBella, opened with a scheduled 8-rounder between junior welterweights Kurt Scoby and John Mannu, the latter an Australian making his U.S. debut.

It was a coming-out party for Scoby, 27, who demolished Mannu, scoring four knockdowns before the match was stopped in the second minute of the second round. Built like a rock of granite, Scoby (11-0, 9 KOs) stamped himself as a fighter to watch.

Scoby (pronounced Scooby) has an interesting background, albeit the “ShoBox” publicist needs to stop referring to him as a former Division 1 football player. Since when is Azusa Pacific a Division 1 school?

From gritty Rialto, California where he spent a good part of his youth in a foster home, Scoby was a high school football vagabond in the LA area who originally signed with D-1 Fresno State. But he never played a down there before trundling off to Azusa Pacific via Dixie College in Utah which he left after enrolling for summer classes.

Listed at 5-foot-8 and 180 pounds as an Azusa Pacific freshman, Scoby reportedly added another 30 pounds of muscle before his college football career was over. And it was an exceptional career. He set some school records as a running back that may never be broken. Azusa Pacific discontinued its football program after the 2020 season.

A successful college football player in the 200-pound range and now a 140-pound boxer who seemingly has a big upside, Kurt Scoby merits a long look when he next steps into the ring. Subscribers to SHOWTIME EXTREME can check him out Monday, Feb. 20, at 10 p.m. ET/PT when last night’s show is re-run.

ProBox

“ShoBox: The New Generation,” has been around since 2001. In January of 2020, the long-running series celebrated its 250^th telecast.

A competitor to ShoBox has emerged in the form of the similarly named ProBox, a company headquartered in Plant City, Florida. The upstart, whose co-founders include Paulie Malignaggi, has a similar business model: Showcase future stars in competitive matches.

The next ProBox event goes this coming Wednesday, Feb. 22. The featured bout is a 10-round super middleweight affair between Seattle southpaw Richard Vansiclin (13-0, 6 KOs and Mexico’s Manuel Gallegos (19-1, 16 KOs). In the co-feature, middleweight Darrelle Valsaint (6-0, 5 KOs) opposes Brazil’s Lucas de Abreu (14-2, 11 KOs).

The 20-year-old Valsaint, born in Florida, represented Haiti in the Tokyo Olympics, advancing to the second round where he was out-pointed by Russian veteran Gleb Bakshi, the eventual bronze medalist.

The bouts are live-streamed on ProBoxTV.com which charges a mere $1.99 monthly subscription fee (and no, that’s not a typo). Considering that DAZN has just raised its prices, more than doubling the cost of an annual subscription, it’s a fair guess that ProBoxTV.com is about to get a bunch of new subscribers, folks defecting from DAZN whose rate increase was greeted with howls of outrage on social media.

Bang Bang vs. Boom Boom

Kenny “Bang Bang” Bodner, a Trenton, New Jersey lightweight who developed a big following in Atlantic City rings, passed away this week at age 62.

During his career, Bogner had three fights fall out with Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, two when Mancini held the WBA world lightweight title.

Bang Bang vs. Boom Boom was a natural pairing wrote one wag, a match certain to be exalted by future generations as the Battle of the Onomatopoeias.

Photo credit: Amanda Westcott / SHOWTIME

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