This Friday night in Corona, California and airing on ESPN2, Art Pellulo and Banner Promotions are bringing the finals of their “Boxcino” tournament. In the Super Welterweight Final, Brandon Adams is a (-450) favorite over John Thompson, who is coming back at (+330). In the finals of the Heavyweight Tournament, Andrey Fedosov is the favorite at (-260), with the return on Donovan Dennis at (+200). Both matches are set for 10 rounds, and there is no over/under posted for either match as of yet. The Adams versus Thompson match is for a pair of regional belts as well, and Adams, at (17-1) has been on a mission to win this tournament since falling in 2014 Middleweight “Boxcino” to Willie Monroe Jr in the finals. Monroe parlayed his tournament win into a high-exposure fight with Gennady Golovkin, so Adams has to feel like a tournament win here will move his career along. Adams fought a tune-up fight at Middleweight in January of this year on the undercard of Monroe’s fight with Brian Vera, and in February and April of this year he won his first and second round bouts of the tournament, stopping (18-1) Alex Perez in the fifth round of their bout and getting a stop against Vito Gasparyan in the seventh round of theirs. Meeting Adams in the finals is John Thompson, who beat Ricardo Pinell by unanimous decision and then took out Stanyslav Skorokhod (9-0) in the second round of the tourney by split decision. Thompson was an undefeated prospect until he was knocked out by Frank Galarza in January of2014, prompting him to take 13 months off before returning for the “Boxcino” tournament. At Heavyweight, the favorite Fedosov (27-3) had the most experience heading into the tournament, and he made short work of Nat Heaven (9-1) in the first tournament fight, knocking him out in the first round and then taking out Lenroy Thomas (19-3) in the third round of their semi-final bout. He has 22 KO wins on his 27 win resume, and his last loss came to Bryant Jennings in June of 2013, when the fight was stopped on a cut. Dennis is (12-1) with a record built largely on journeymen. His lone loss came when he was knocked out by Nat Heaven, who Fedosov knocked out in the opening round. Dennis has looked impressive in this years “Boxcino” series, stopping undefeated Steve Vukosa (10-0) in the fourth round of their quarter-final bout and getting the second round KO of Razvan Cojanu (13-1) in the semi-finals. The “Boxcino” series started in the late 1990’s and produced world champion Acelino “Popo” Freitas of Brazil from its first edition. Boxing being what it is, the tournaments were shelved for almost two decades before re-emerging last year with Lightweight and Middleweight tournaments. At Lightweight, Petr Petrov (36-4-2) emerged as the champion, and as mentioned, Monroe Jr won at Middleweight. The live event features five fights in support of the finals.
