By Robert Coster
They are all here, the foreign boxers that will participate on Saturday in the WBA “KO to Drugs” held this year in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The main event is for the WBA interim super lightweight world title between WBA #3 contender Alberto Puello (16-0, 9 KOs) of the Dominican Republic, facing WBA# 5 Jonathan Alonso (18-0, 12 KOs) of Spain (but Dominican born). This will be an intriguing matchup between the two unbeaten young stars, both excellent boxer-punchers.
There are eight other competitive bouts on the card, five of them for WBA Fedelatin titles and one for the WBA Fedecaribe belt. All the bouts will pit the best Dominican prospects against carefully selected foreign boxers.
Among the bouts to be mentioned are that of Hector Luis Garcia (11-0, 9 KOs), DR, vs Anvar Yunusov (8-0, 4 KOs) of Tadjikistan, both boxers being former Olympians. This clash will be for the WBA featherweight Fedelatin title.
Also, Bryan Medina (8-0, 7 KOs), DR, vs Ivan Matute (30-2, 25 KOs) of Venezuela in the super welterweight class, hard-punching bantamweight William Encarnacion (18-0, 15 KOs), DR, against Giovanny Gutierrez (7-0, 5 KOs) of Nicaragua; Luis Salazar (12-0, 2 KOs), DR, vs. Bernardo Lebron (10-1, 4 KOs) of Puerto Rico.
The televised card is promoted by Shuan Boxing Promotion and will be held at the Teo Cruz Coliseum in the Dominican capital. WBA President Gilbert Mendoza Jr will be in attendance.
Another update on the islands by excellent writer Robert Coster. We read about the DR’s list of tomato cans to build up records but he keeps us posted on the real good fighters of the DR