Looking to capture his 40thcareer win in front of his hometown fans, former three-time, middleweight world champion William Joppy (39-6-1, 30 KOs) of Washington, DCwill step back into the ring at the Patriot Center on Saturday, Nov. 6 to face Baltimore bruiserCory “Black Ice” Cummings(17-4, 13 KOs). The 10-round bout will serve as the co-main event on the Jimmy Lange Boxing card promoted by Ice Promotions and presented by Valcourt Building Services.
Now fighting out of Woodbridge, VA, where he serves as a trainer for LA Boxing, Joppy is one of the most distinguished boxers to hail from the Nation’s Capital. In 1996, he captured the World Boxing Association’s (WBA) middleweight crown with a TKO victory over Shinji Takehara and went on to face a ‘who’s who’ in the middleweight division during his career. Among the opponents he faced were world titleholders Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins, Felix “Tito” Trinidad, Roberto Duran, Howard Eastman, Lucian Bute, Jermain Taylor and Julio Cesar Green.
Joppy lost his last fight, a 10-round decision to Sebastien Demers in Montreal, March 26, 2010.
Looking to spoil Joppy’s homecoming is the powerful Cummings, who is coming off a grueling ninth-round TKO win over Demetrius Davis for the Maryland State Super Middleweight title in May 2009. The Baltimore boxer should provide a tough test for Joppy, just as he did in a loss to another former DC middleweight world champion, Keith Holmes, in 2006. Cummings faced another former world titleholder, Montell Griffin, in 2008.
Jimmy Lange (33-4-2, 23 KOs) will battle Joe Wyatt (23-1, 15 KOs) for the North American Boxing Association’s (NABA) vacant 154-pound U.S. title in the evening’s Main Event. The all-star undercard features top regional competitors such as Fairfax, VA welterweight Todd “White Lightning” Wilson (8-0, 2 KOs), the “Bolivian Queen”Jennifer Salinas (11-2, 4 KOs) of Manassas, VA, Martinsburg, WV junior middleweight Perry Ballard (20-2-1, 15 KOs), middleweight Zain “Tiger” Shah (3-0, 2 KOs) of Chantilly, VA and middleweights Brandon Quarles (2-0) of Alexandria, VA taking on Lawrence Jones (3-2-2, 1 KO) of Chantilly, VA.
Doors open at 6:00 pm with the first fight set for 7:00 pm. Tickets, priced at $35, $50, $75, $100, $125, $200, $300 and $500 (plus applicable service charge), can be purchased through Ticketmaster by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com, calling phone charge at 703-573-SEAT, 202-397-SEAT or 410-547-SEAT or by visiting any Ticketmaster outlet, including the Patriot Center box office (703-993-3000).
All bouts are subject to change.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
