PRESS RELEASE: Junior welterweight contender Kendall Holt of Paterson, N.J. will return to action on Thursday, February 7, 2008 taking on Ben Tackie of Accra, Ghana at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Bob Arum of Top Rank made the announcement today. Holt vs. Tackie will be broadcast live on the Versus network. Opening the telecast will be USA Olympian Vanes 'Nightmare' Martirosyan, an 18-0 jnuior middleweight. This will be Holt's first fight since losing a controversial WBO title fight to Ricardo Torres in Torres' hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia last September.

In that bout Holt knocked down Torres in the sixth round, then said he was struck by a thrown object from the stands and that "someone reached in and grabbed one of my legs in the 11th round."  Holt was stopped late in the title fight. Team Holt filed a formal 35-page protest but the decision was not overturned and a rematch was not reordered. "I'm happy to get back into the ring and get this Torres thing behind me," Holt told Keith Idec of the New Jersey Herald News. "Ben Tackie is a solid guy, never been knocked out, done fought the best." Holt, in his interview with Idec, added "...being ranked #2 [by the WBO] after all the smoke has cleared, that's not bad, even though I am not getting an immediate rematch. It's not as good as I was at #1, but another one or two fights and I am right back in the same position I was in." .Tickets are now on sale at the Hard Rock box office and on ticketmaster.com