By Jackie Kallen
I stopped in to check out the action at Bad Boy Gym last week in Royal Oak, MI and met a tough kid from Chicago named Don George who was there getting ready for his fight tomorrow night with David Alonso Lopez. It is on the undercard of Kermit Cintron/Adrian Granados. The fight is on ESPN FNF.
George was in the Detroit area to work with Adonis Stevenson, who beat him in a 12 round stoppage last October. Their fight was a war that fans in Montreal are still talking about.
George put up a masterful and gutsy fight and earned a lot of fans that night. He proved that he could take a punch like few men can and he gave Stevenson all he could handle. Being a southpaw (like Lopez), Stevenson was the perfect sparring partner for George.
“The sparring in Chicago just isn’t there,” he explained. “I knew I needed better work and Adonis is a great fighter. He also has a fight on the 22nd, so we decided that we could help each other.”
Stevenson will be facing veteran Darnel Boone, who has had over 40 fights, with only eight knockouts. It will hopefully be an easy activity fight.
George has a solid 24-3 record with an impressive 21 KOs. You can’t argue with a record like that. The only time he was stopped was by Stevenson.
“It was a tough fight,” they both agreed. The mutual respect between the two warriors is evident.
George’s opponent for this one, Lopez, is a 35 year old journeyman with over 54 bouts under his belt. He has a 42% KO rate and went 12 rounds with Austin Trout. He is a 6’2″ Mexican southpaw who loves to mix it up, though he been pretty inactive in recent years.
George is not concerned. He feels ready and is excited to be fighting a middleweight. George has campaigned as heavy as 172 and is a strapping 6’0″, but he feels he will be much more effective at middleweight.
“I know I’ll do well at this lower weight,” he said. “I will be in with guys who are naturally lighter. ”
When you fight at super-middleweight, your opponent can enter the ring as high as 180 (or even higher). George and his team feel he will be unbeatable at 160.
Sponsored by Hitz Boxing for this fight, the Chicago boxing fans have high expectations for George. He is a good-looking, exciting fighter who is also a superb poker player. He has had a lot of TV exposure and he has amassed a large and supportive fan base. A win against Lopez would move George one step closer to his ultimate goal: Middleweight Champion of the World.
Jackie Kallen is a boxing manager who has been in the business for over three decades. Her life inspired the Meg Ryan film “Against the Ropes” and she was a part of the NBC series “The Contender.” www.JackieKallen.com, www.facebook.com/JackieKallen