On Thursday, August 29th, DiBella Entertainment's Broadway Boxing series will return to Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, CT, with a card headlined by Toka Kahn Clary taking on Irvin Gonzalez in a ten-round super featherweight contest. WBA women's super middleweight world champion Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa will defend her title against Shemelle Baldwin (3-0-1, 2 KOs). The event will be live streamed exclusively on UFC Fight Pass.
"Broadway Boxing returns to Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, CT, on Thursday, August 29th, with a loaded card streamed live on UFC Fight Pass," said Lou DiBella, President of DiBella Entertainment. "The main event will feature a terrific New England matchup of super featherweights Toka Kahn Clary and Irvin Gonzalez. The card will also illustrate DiBella Entertainment's commitment to women's boxing, with Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa defending her title in the co-feature and top female contenders Kali Reis and Helen Joseph competing as well. The undercard will have a great mix of contenders and prospects, including unbeaten heavyweight Stephan Shaw, Hershey Normatov continuing his rise in the junior middleweight division and amateur star Fazliddin Meliboev, from Uzbekistan, making his pro debut."
New England super featherweights Toka "T Nice" Kahn Clary (26-2, 18 KOs), of Providence, RI, and Irvin Gonzalez (12-1, 9 KOs), of Worcester, MA, will clash in the ten-round main event. Victorious in seven of his last eight starts, the 27-year-old Clary, a native of Liberia, returns following a fifth-round knockout of Carlos Manuel Reyes on May 17. Prior to the Reyes stoppage, Clary lost a twelve-round unanimous decision to then-undefeated contender Kid Galahad on October 20th, 2018, in Boston, MA.
Unbeaten through his first 12 fights as a professional, the 23-year-old Gonzalez is looking to rebound from his only loss to Elijah Pierce on May 17.
In a ten-round women's championship bout, Alicia "The Empress" Napoleon-Espinosa (11-1, 6 KOs), of Lindenhurst, NY, will defend her WBA super middleweight world title against Shemelle Baldwin (3-0-1, 2 KOs), of Newark, DE. Napoleon-Espinosa will be making the second defense of her world title that she captured on March 3, 2018, with a ten-round decision versus previously undefeated Femke Hermans. She followed that with a ten-round world title defense against Hannah Rankin on August 4, 2018, at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. Napoleon-Espinosa began 2019 with a second-round knockout of Eva Bajic on April 10th, in New York City.
Before turning pro in November 2017, Baldwin was a Washington D.C. Golden Gloves champion, a three-time Pennsylvania Golden Gloves champion, and an Olympic Trials semi-finalist.
Heavyweight Stephan "Big Shot" Shaw (11-0, 8 KOs), of St. Louis, MO, will square off against southpaw Johnnie Langston (7-1, 3 KOs), of Sarasota, FL, in an eight-round contest. The 6'4" Shaw is determined to keep up the momentum from his last two knockout victories against Aaron Chavers last October and Donovan Dennis in March. Following a stellar amateur career that included 2013 PAL and USA National Championships titles, Shaw turned professional in December 2013.
Langston will seek to return to the win column following a majority decision loss to Lyubomyr Pinchuk in July.
Fazliddin Meliboev, a 22-year-old from Kokand, Uzbekistan, co-promoted by DiBella Entertainment and Fight Promotions Inc., will appear in a six-round bout. The southpaw Meliboev was an amateur star who was an Uzbekistan National champion in 2015. He won silver medals at the 2017 Great Silk Way Tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the 2016 Chinggis Khan Cup in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and a bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Youth Boxing Championships in Bangkok, Thailand. He also participated in the World Series of Boxing, winning all three of his bouts.
Southpaw junior middleweight Hurshidbek "Hershey" Normatov (8-0, 3 KOs), of Andijan, Uzbekistan, and now based in Brooklyn, NY, will compete in his first eight-rounder. He has defeated two previously unbeaten prospects in Alexis Gaytan and Nicklaus Flaz and, in his last fight, decisioned 9-1-1 Calvin Metcalf on April 10. As an amateur, Normatov accumulated a 190-40 record and won the European Amateur National Championships in 2014.
Former WBC middleweight champion Kali "KO Mequinonoag" Reis (15-7-1, 5 KOs), of Providence, RI, and Helen "Iron Lady" Joseph (16-3-2, 10 KOs), of New Haven, CT, will compete in separate six-round bouts. Last May, Reis clashed with undisputed welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus in the first women's bout telecast on HBO, losing a hard-fought 10-rounder in Carson, CA. Reis has returned with two wins in a row, most recently scoring a sixth-round stoppage of Szilvia Szabados on October 19, 2018, in Washington, D.C. On August 3, Joseph dropped then decisioned Hungarian Edina Kiss over six rounds in Brooklyn, NY.
Popular welterweight Adrian "Tonka" Sosa (11-0, 9 KOs), of Lawrence, MA, will see action in a scheduled six-rounder. The 24-year-old Sosa has scored four knockouts in a row following his decision victory against previously unbeaten Khiry Todd last year. Sosa was a 2014 New England Golden Gloves champion and turned pro in July 2016 following an 18-2 amateur career.
Two local newcomers will be featured with Puerto Rican lightweight Nelson "Chino" Perez (1-0, 1KO), of Marlboro, MA, and Bridgeport, CT, super featherweight Jacob Marrero (3-0, 2 KOs) each boxing in four-round bouts. Compiling an amateur record of 58-9, Marrero was a 2016 New England Golden Gloves Champion, a five-time Connecticut Silver Gloves Champion and a five-time Connecticut Junior Olympics Champion.
Tickets for the Broadway Boxing event, presented by Nissan of Queens, Azad Watches, OPTYX, Christos Steak House and Gagliardi Insurance, Mashantucket, Connecticut 06338. Doors will open to the Fox Theater at 6:30 p.m., with the first fight scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
