Professional boxing is set to return to Cochrane later this month, with organizers promising a historic night that will feature the community’s first-ever professional title fights.
Olympus Boxing Club will host its second professional fight night at the Cochrane Lions Legacy Hall on June 27, featuring eight professional bouts, ranging from four to 10 rounds, and four title fights.
The event follows a successful inaugural show on March 28, which promoter and boxer Angelo Habib says exceeded expectations.
“We had a fully sold-out crowd,” said Habib. “Everyone in Cochrane is very nice, and at our after-party I had a bunch of people coming up and giving me high-fives that I’d never met before. They told me they were at the fights, so we had good feedback.”
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Habib says many attendees were experiencing professional boxing for the first time.
“A lot of locals came out that it was their first time seeing a professional boxing event live,” he said. “It was really nice to have a new set of eyes on the sport of boxing.”
The June 27 card will make local sporting history as the first professional title card ever held in Cochrane.
“We rewrote the history books on March 28. It was the first professional boxing event ever held in Cochrane,” said Habib. “Now it’s going to be the first-ever championship title fight in Cochrane. Once again, we are rewriting history.”
Habib, who first stepped into the ring at age eight, will headline the evening in a world welterweight title fight against Mexico’s Jose Jasso.
The bout will be contested for the vacant National Boxing Association (NBA) World Welterweight Championship and the vacant International Boxing Council (IBC) World Welterweight Championship.
Habib says the opportunity carries special significance given the history of the NBA title, which has been held by the likes of Roy Jones Jr., Roberto Duran and Hector Camacho.
“It’s quite an honour to be able to fight for such a prestigious belt and do it in front of my home crowd,” he said.
Other title fights on the card include Kelvin Kpulubu challenging for the vacant IBC Americas Cruiserweight Championship and Mohammed Assaf competing for the North American Boxing Union (NABU) Heavyweight Masters Championship.
Despite spending 22 years in the sport, Habib says his passion for boxing remains as strong as ever.
“I just love it. It’s my passion. It’s my life,” he said. “I look up to guys like Roy Jones Jr. and Roberto Duran, and I want to get to that level where we can not only put Western Canada on the map, but put our country on the map on an international stage.”
Doors open at 6 p.m. on June 27, with the first bout scheduled for 7 p.m. Organizers expect the event to conclude around 10 p.m.
Tickets are available through the Olympus Boxing Club website or by scanning the QR code on promotional posters circulating throughout town.
“Fans can enter the discount code of their favourite fighter,” said Habib. “Mine is ‘Habib,’ or they can use ‘Olympus.'”
Habib is hoping another capacity crowd will continue building on the momentum generated by the inaugural event,
“I’m really hoping this event has the same outcome and we get to fill up the Cochrane Lions Legacy Centre again and kick off the summer the right way,” he said.