Niles’ Lyell headlines New Castle fight card

“Presenting competitive fights is the main objective, and our first show will clearly prove this.”

Marc Mariacher

Promoter

Six bouts are scheduled tonight at the Caravan II facility.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The first of a series of four fight nights will take place at the renovated Caravan II entertainment facility tonight.

Caravan II is located at 1465 Sampson St. (U.S. route 422).

Presenting the first pro show here in over 10 years, promoter Marc Mariacher of New Castle is kicking off the series with a six-bout card tabbed “Battle in the Ballroom.”

The card is headlined by Billy Lyell of Niles and Chris Archer of Pittsburgh who will battle for the NABC Inter-Continental Middleweight Title.

“Presenting competitive fights is the main objective, and our first show will clearly prove this,” said Mariacher. “In addition to pro boxing, Golden Glove style amateur boxing as well as MMA shows are also scheduled in the next six months. We are fully committed to the fight game”

Lyell (17-6, 3 KOs 3kos), a Niles High graduate and senior at Youngstown State, is credited with wins over prospects Robert Dula (15-1) of Cincinnati and Tony Cygon (9-0) of Baltimore.

However, after losing a 10-round decision at the Chevrolet Centre in June 2007 against former IBF junior middleweight champ Yori Boy Campas (92-13), Lyell has been on the comeback trail, winning an eight-round decision last Saturday in Morgantown, W. Va., against Vance Garvey of Indianapolis.

Lyell gets his second opportunity to garnish his first belt as a professional. In his first title shot, Lyell traveled to the Cayman Islands in September 2006 to face the WBO’s 11th-ranked junior middleweight, Charles Whittaker (32-12).

In that fight, Lyell was stopped in the fourth round of the scxheduled 12-round WBC Regional Junior Middleweight title fight.

“I was honored to be invited to fight locally at a new ‘state of the art’ facility,” said Lyell. “But when the promoter agreed to place me in the main event for a championship belt, it was like icing on the cake.”

Archer (10-4, 6 KOs) is coming off an impressive first-round knockout of Don Shrock at Slippery Rock University on Nov. 1.

In comparison, Lyell defeated Shrock by decision in April. Lyell is trained by Keith Burnside of Struthers and managed by Pat Nelson of Youngstown.

Tonight’s undercard also features local pro talent and highlighted by light heavyweight prospect Tommy Karpency of Uniontown, Pa. Karpency (14-1-1, 10 KOs) will battle Willis “The Prophet” Lockett (10-6-5, 4 KOs) of Maryland in the six round co-feature.

The remainder of the six bouts will be made up of four rounders. Pittsburgh prospect Jimmy Lubash (11-1, 5 KOs) meets Greg Beerman (4-4) of Dayton in a super middleweight match. Both Karpency and Lubash are also managed by Nelson.

Also, welterweight Tom Joseph (4-1-1) of Youngstown meets Gabe Morris (1-1) of Toledo, while Khristian Geraci (3-4-1) of Pittsburgh faces Cliff Gregory (0-4-3) of Farrell, Pa., in another welterweight match.

A female fight is scheduled between featherweights Valerie DeFreitas (1-1) of Shelby and Lucia Larcinese (0-2) of Montreal.

Tickets are $25-$50 and can be purchased at the door. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with the first fight scheduled for 7:30.