Philadelphia, PA (August 24, 2015) - Boxcino 2015 champion John "Apollo Kidd" Thompson has signed to face undefeated Liam Smith for the vacant WBO world Jr. Middleweight title on October 10th in Manchester, England. Thompson joins Willie Monroe Jr. as the 2nd Boxcino champion to fight for a world title in a five month span. Thompson (17-1, 6 KO's) of Newark, New Jersey will participating in his first world title bout. Thompson is co-promoted by Vito Mielnicki's GH3 Promotions and Arthur Pelullo's Banner Promotions. Thompson gained the opportunity on the strength of winning the Boxcino 2015 Jr. Middleweight tournament with wins over Ricardo Pinell (10-1-1), Stanyslav Skorkhod (9-0) and a 2nd round stoppage over Brandon Adams (17-1). "I am excited. These doors keep opening, and I just walk through them and close them. I have to do my job. I am going into this fight making sure that I am in tip-top shape. For me, the Boxcino tournament was a great opportunity to be established. It is a strong platform to show my talents. I fought very tough competition, and I knew from the beginning that's how you get prepared for these types of fights," said Thompson. "I am very proud of John. He was a last minute replacement in Boxcino. He went on to win to the tournament in style by scoring a spectacular knockout over the heavily favored Brandon Adams. When the opportunity came about to fight Liam Smith for the title, John jumped all over it and said make it happen. John is a real fighter and understands when these types of opportunities come up, they are few are far between, and he jumped at the opportunity to fight for the WBO Jr. Middleweight world championship," said Arthur Pelullo of Banner Promotions Said Vito Mielnicki, President of GH3 Promotions, "John was the first fighter I signed at GH3 Promotions. He always has taken the tough fights as you look at his history. I feel he is by far the more dominant fighter in this fight, and he will show his talent on October 10. It won't matter that he his going into Smith's Backyard, John will put on a great performance." The bout is promoted by Frank ******'s Queensberry Promotions, in association with Arthur Pelullo's Banner Promotions and Vito Mielnicki's GH3 Promotions. The Smith - Thompson bout will join the WBO Middleweight title fight between Andy Lee and Billy Joe Saunders, as well as Terry Flanagan defending his WBO Lightweight title against Diego Magdaleno, which wil make up a championship triple-header on October 10th from Manchester, England.
So Smith ducked Andrade, then lost a decent opponent in Soro and now fights this guy? "World Title" - not even.
Come on man, really ? No way did Smith duck Andrade.. Smith was supposed to go down the IBF route until Andrade got stripped after failing to defend after the Rose victory. His appeal with the WBO is still ongoing according to different articles and he may get an immediate chance at the title, if not given an interim belt of some sort for a mandatory opportunity. Maybe if Andrade is successful, he might be given his title back and Smith could be downgraded to 'interim' champ. ? I agree he lost a decent and credible opponent in Soro (apparently he had problems with his promoter) but this guy is huge for 154 and may pose some problems for Beefy on size alone. Still think Smith wins on points. And on the "World Title" point, yes the WBO are terrible with their dodgy rankings (just look at Stieglitz continually rated at number 1 at 168 for Abraham rematches) and also they're probably the easiest to tap in submission so to speak. Top Rank, and Wazza have a ridiculous foothold over the WBO. So many of their fighters get bumped up the rankings in a heartbeat for title opportunities while fighting nobodies.
Oddly, Thompson is with Banner promotions, the same promotional company that had problems getting Andrade fights. If Thompson wins, it would, theoretically speaking be fairly easy for Andrade to get right back in the ring for a WBO title fight
