K.O. Drugs set to hold final fights

Tuesday's tournament will have 32 championship bouts.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Championships will be decided on Tuesday for the 18th K.O. Drugs High School Boxing Tournament at the St. Nicholas Byzantine Center at the Grove.
Chuck Nelson, the founder of K.O. Drugs Boxing and the director of the tournament, said, "We have had great fights in this year's tournament and now we are looking forward to crowning 32 champions."
The night will have 33 bouts with a female consolation fight leading off the card followed by 17 underclass division and 15 upperclass division championship fights.
There will be 25 high schools participating in the action with Austintown Fitch, Canfield and Struthers leading the way with a combined 26 boxers.
Aside from the leadoff consolation bout, there will be six championship fights for female boxers.
Fight night
There will be super heavyweight bouts in both the underclass and upperclass divisions. Don Hanni, a runner-up last year measuring 6-foot-2, 250 pounds, will face Liberty's Jarrod Reynolds (6-3, 253) for the underclass division title. The upperclass super heavyweight title bout has the contestants just a little larger with Girard's Mike Cole (6-5, 307) meeting Warren JFK's Derek Wagner (6-4, 320).
Three defending champions will be in action, with Warren Harding's Rasheen Haynes (3-0), a featherweight title winner last year, going against South Range's Stephen Orr (1-0) for the upperclass lightweight crown.
Two upperclass champs will defend titles. Canfield's Zack Guerrieri (3-0) will defend his junior middleweight title against Boardman's Jon Kocon (2-0). Champion's Brandon Holmes (3-0) defends his middleweight title against Niles' Nick Marchese (2-1).
There are 17 bouts with undefeated boxers competing against each other for championships, including underclass standouts Mike Tomko from Canfield, Chaney's Bryan Chaidez, Struthers' Alan Ward, Fitch's Bobby McFarland and Dominic Drummond, James Neopolitan, Mooney's Zach Dietz and South Range's Bill Bowden.
Among the upperclass standouts are Ursuline's Bryan Pegues (3-0), who has stopped two opponents early in the first round, vying for the super middleweight crown along with cruiserweight Paul Perry from Girard and heavyweight Dan Bayus of Brookfield.
The doors will open at 6 p.m. Tickets cost $10.