A red-hot summer for Pittsburgh Boxing continues with Gionta Management's return to the Washington County Fairgrounds for Battle at The Fairgrounds III on July 2nd. Doors open at 5 PM, and the first bell is at 6 PM.
The card allows the amateur competitors to fight alongside their professional peers, as the card will feature the amateurs in the undercard before moving to the pros.
“I think it's good to have it all mixed,” said Derek Gionta of Monroeville, the promoter for the card. “It excites the amateurs to fight on the undercard of some of these pros.”
The amateur fights feature talent competing in the National Golden Gloves tournament in Ellwood City’s Devon Siegfried and Stanley Davis of Akron.
“At 185 [pounds], it’s a little harder to find opponents, especially at the open level,” said Gionta. “They decided to fight, neither hesitated, and they know they’ll come out of it better.”
Another amateur bout is a women’s match between Pittsburgh’s Ashley Harner and Lauren Michaels of Altoona. Harner fought Donya Shodja at Integrity Fighter Promotion’s Spring Slugfest V in March.
The professional side of the card will also feature a women’s super-middleweight match between Mary Casamassa of Wexford (1-0) and LeAnn O’Malley of Las Vegas (1-2).
Casamassa won in her first professional fight against Jozette Cotton in May at the Murraysville SportZone.
The Pitt engineering student said the most important thing she learned from her first professional match was to relax.
“When I got [in the ring], it was still a fight,” said Casamassa. “It felt quite similar. You’d say a little bit more excited.”
Pittsburgh boxing has been on the rise, and over the last year, women’s boxing is well on its way here. Casamassa hopes to show the kids, especially the girls in attendance, that they can also be a fighter.
“It’s one of the reasons why I love my gym is we have so many kids there and honestly motivates me more,” said Casamassa. “I take it as an honor to show kids that side of boxing.”
Also representing Pittsburgh on the card is Washington PA’s “Sweet Child” Matt Conway (20-3 9 KO), looking to bounce back from a tough loss in January to Avery Sparrow for IBA Super Featherweight World Championship and the PA Super Featherweight Championship.
He will take on Brazil’s Eduardo Pereira Dos Reis (24-8 19 KO) in a lightweight clash.
The loss came via a standing TKO in the 10th round, giving him his first-ever loss in the Pittsburgh area, his previous defeats happening in Nevada.
Gionta said Sparrow was his best opponent in his career, and both were engaged in a classic. Since that loss, he continued his training with little time off.
“Avery's a really good fighter, and Matt stayed on his feet the entire fight,” said Gionta. He’s gonna carry that same mentality in this next fight. He’s blue-collar.”
Gionta highlighted the third scheduled pro fight between Willie Shaw (13-3 9 KO) of Oakland, CA, and Philadelphia’s Tyrone Crawley (7-1).
Both fighters are from out of the area, so it’s for the hardcore boxing fan or the casual fan interested in learning about more pros. Something he always tries to bring to his shows for the hometown crowd.
“It's a good matchup, and it will allow the fans to see neutral fighters go out here in Pittsburgh,” said Gionta. “Those have turned out to be some of our best matchups since I started [promoting].”
Tickets are $40 at the door. For more information on tickets, call 412-759-0407.
Parts of this article was used for a piece in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.