DETROIT \u2013 Jonny Mansour and Julius \u201cJu-Ju\u201d Ballo are boxers with big dreams who will be fighting for the first time in Detroit next Saturday, August 29 at the Fox Theatre. The card is being put on by Salita Promotions \u201cBig Time Boxing\u201d.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re cousins, who are both from San Diego and have a combined 10-0 professional record. They are more like brothers and they\u2019re ready to meet the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cDetroit\u2019s, you know, a place where I wanted to fight years ago,\u201d Mansoor, 26, said. \u201cI wrote a letter to myself. I said my goal one day is to fight in San Diego and to fight in Detroit, and here we are.\u201d <\/p>\n
They\u2019re also both Chaldean, and with Metro Detroit having one of country\u2019s largest Arab American populations, stepping into the Fox Theatre means a little something more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in Iraq a couple of months ago,\u201d Mansoor said. \u201cWhen the Iraqi soccer team was playing [in the World Cup], you could feel the streets shaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to be the first generation born in the United States \u2013 we both represented Team USA \u2013 and now to be representing our family\u2019s roots in Iraq, it\u2019s a blessing, and we know they\u2019re going to show out for us.<\/p>\n
Also, on the card is Husam al-Mashhadi \u2013 a super welterweight who has a career record of 15-1 with 12 knockouts. He was born in Iraq and lives in Dearborn. <\/p>\n
This is a homecoming for him, and he says he\u2019s ready for the spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be probably the most stacked, you know, Middle Eastern card crowd that I\u2019m going to be on,\u201d al-Mashhadi said. \u201cI\u2019d like to win a world title, by the time I\u2019m 26 years old, and I think I think you know this is a step closer to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ballo and Mansour held a public workout at the SuperBad gym in Detroit last week and they\u2019ve also spent time working out at the iconic Kronk gym \u2013 where more than 40 world champions have trained.<\/p>\n
They understand the legacy of Detroit boxing and are ready to put their stamp on it, while also representing their community<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be great night of boxing at the Fox Theater,\u201d Ballo, 23, said. You get to watch the two biggest Middle Eastern fighters come together, and it\u2019s going to be a big night for Detroit. <\/p>\n
This event will be the 4th ever boxing event held at the fox. And the card will also feature several up-and-coming local fighters from Detroit, Flint, Troy, and Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n
Tickets are still available on Ticketmaster and it starts on Saturday at 5:00pm.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2013 Jonny Mansour and Julius \u201cJu-Ju\u201d Ballo are boxers with big dreams who will be fighting for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[434869,64,63,802,12266,434867,434871,434868,434870,434872,85],"class_list":["post-865906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-arab-american-community","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-detroit","tag-fox-theater","tag-iraqi-american-athletes","tag-kronk-gym","tag-metro-detroit-events","tag-middle-eastern-athletes","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}