This Friday night, January 16th the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York will host a boxing card set to air on ESPN2 with a main event featuring Lightweights Petr Petrov and Henry Lundy in a 10 round bout. The co-main event sees Middleweight slugger Brian Vera take on Willie Monroe Jr. The complete live event card features seven fights, however lines are only up at the books for the two main offerings. Neither fight has over/under action set as of yet. Right now at the books, Lundy (25-4), who is a former NABF Lightweight titleholder, is favored at (-140) over the veteran Petrov, who has won three fights in a row. Prior to that, Petrov had been competing in Spain, and he had some success there. Back in 2011, he was KO’d in four rounds by Marcos Maidana. For Lundy’s part, the Philadelphian is in desperate need of a win. He lost his last outing to Thomas Dulorme on th undercard of the David Lemieux versus Gabriel Rosado card at the Barclay’s Center, and he is (3-3) in his last six outings. Back in 2012, he took a Majority Decision loss to Raymundo Beltran, who went on to be a factor in the World Title picture thorughout 2013. That fight with Beltran set up the levelling of of his career, and Lundy cannot help but think he should be in Beltran’s spot right now, earning better paydays than this. Lundy needs a good showing on television to start moving forward with his career again. The co-main event sees Monroe Jr come in a solid favorite at (-420) over the veteran Vera, who is paying back at (+300). Monroe is an unusual southpaw from upstate New York who has been featured in ESPN2’s recent Middleweight tournament where he won the whole thing. At (18-1), he is taking a step up in competition facing a tested veteran like Vera, and with just 6 stoppages, this is going to be the classic boxer versus slugger bout. In his last outing for the Middleweight tournament title, Monroe Jr comfortably outboxed then-undefeated (14-0) Brandon Adams. Vera’s last two fights were against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, but he followed a strong performance where many gave him the edge with a performance where he was outclassed by Chavez Jr. He has not competed in boxing since, though he did do a prize fight with different rules under a different boxing format, and he lost that one too. Vera will be looking to engage, but he may be a step slow for the slick moving “Mongoose” and it could end up being a long and frustrating nighht for Vera.
