A trio of the best boxing talent St. Louis has produced in recent years will be on display Friday, April 24 when Don King, Rumble Time Promotions and DiBella Entertainment present the “Show Me in St. Louis” card at the Scottrade Center.
In the main event, which has been dubbed “North vs. South: The Show Me Showdown” by Rumble Time, former undisputed welterweight ruler Cory “The Next Generation” Spinks (36-5, 11 ko’s) will be looking to reclaim the vacant IBF junior middleweight strap he relinquished to Verno Phillips in March of last year.
To do so, the slick Spinks will have to get past rising contender Deandre “The Bull” Latimore (19-1, 16 ko’s), the former Southsider with concussive power who scored his biggest victory to date last summer before a national television audience with a seventh round stoppage of the highly regarded Sechew Powell.
In addition to that, undefeated Devon Alexander “The Great” (17-0, 10 ko’s), another local product currently ranked as the WBC’s #1 ranked mandatory challenger, will return home to perform in front of his fans after taking his act on the road and racking up frequent flier miles between St. Louis, China and New Jersey.
The co-feature is sure to provide an electric atmosphere for those in attendance, and the event will also be broadcast on Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” series.
It will be the fourth time Spinks has fought under the roof of Scottrade, beginning in February of 2005 with a loss to Zab Judah in the welter class. The southpaw redeemed himself on home turf more than a year later by besting Roman Karmazin over 12 rounds to earn the junior middle title, which was subsequently captured and then vacated by Phillips when he headed north to a new weight division.
In addition to the title battle between two fighters of dramatically contrasting styles in Spinks and Latimore, it will be a treat to chart the progress of the sensational Alexander, who seems destined for a breakout year.
All seating will be in the lower bowl of the arena, with prices ranging from $10 to $100, with a limited number of $300 Golden Circle seats, and tickets are available now at the Scottrade Center box office, all Ticketmaster locations, on line at www.ticketmaster.com, or by phone at 1-800-745-3000.
