Panda 5 Star Promotions is back at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida on Friday August 22, as it presents Thunder At The Forum Round Two, featuring a stacked card of professional boxing headlined by two World Boxing Federation (WBF) championship fights.
Fighting for the vacant WBF Womens World Welterweight crown, local former multiple world champion Chevelle “Fist of Steel” Hallback takes on long-time top-contender Victoria Cisneros in what is undoubtedly an elite match-up in the division.
It is also a rematch, as Hallback won a hotly contested split decision in their first fight in 2010, in Cisneros hometown of Albuqueque.
Besides winning several world titles, Hallback has fought a whos-who of the biggest names in the sport, and holds an impressive professional record of 29-8-2 (12) with thirteen championship fights on her resume. She last fought this past June, stopping Dominga Olivo in two rounds, also at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
Victoria “La Reina de Guerra” Cisneros probably has the most misleading record in womens boxing today. Her 11-15-2 (4) ledger does her no justice, as she is unquestionably world class and one of the best campaigners in or around her weight class.
Last May the 29-year-old dropped a close decision to WBF World Light Welterweight Champion Rola El Halabi in Germany, after giving the local star hell for ten rounds in one of the best female fights in years, and before that she stopped undefeated Mexican Paty Ramirez (in Mexico) to win a regional title.
In the co-featured bout, Washington’s former World Champion DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley, 40-22-1 (24), faces upset minded David Rodela, 17-9-3 (7), from Oxnard, California for the vacant WBF North America Light Welterweight title.
With names such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Zab Judah, Miguel Cotto and Marcos Maidana on his record, just to name a select few, Corley is as experienced as can be, and is looking to start a new run towards a world championship fight by winning the WBF North America title in Tampa.
David Rodela has yet to be successful at the highest level, having lost recent fights to notable names such as current world champion Terence Crawford and former world titlist Jorge Linares. However. he is coming off a good win over 15-5-1 Tyrell Samuels last month.
In 2008 Rodela sprung an upset by scoring a decision over a faded former world champion in Kevin Kelley, and on various other occasions he entered the ring as the underdog but left as the victor, so he will be squaring off with DeMarcus Corley knowing what it takes.
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.
