Get ready for the Battle of Alberta
FINESSE matched against pure brutality in welterweight fight between Reti, Michel, writes
Call it boxing ’s Battle of Alberta.
Longtime Edmonton-based KO Boxing promotions and Calgary’s Dekada Fight Night pit their top welterweights against each other Nov. 3 at Deerfoot Inn and Casino, not only featuring a battle of styles — finesse vs. pure brutality — but also a showcase of the two top promotions in Western Canada going head to head.
This writer has a deep history with the original KO Promotions as a competitor on their very first event back in 1989 in Fort Mac. In fact current owner of KO, Milan Lubovac, even helped work my corner.
Lubovac picked up the promotions company circa 2011 and primarily built its events around local media darling and women’s champion, Jelena Mrdjenovich.
With the recent retirement of Mrdjenovich, it’s a great time to breathe new life into the fight city and Alberta’s capital, and what better way than undefeated Calgary fighter Devin Reti, with an 11-0 record, taking on Edmonton’s top welterweight Flavio Michel, a.k.a. The Angolan Assassin, who’s 8-2.
This becomes the first real Battle of Alberta in the squared circle since Calgary’s Willie Dewite and Edmonton’s Ken Lakusta filled Northlands Coliseum in 1986 for their historic Canadian Heavyweight championship bout, with both fighters garnering six-figure paydays.
There’s no title on the line for Reti and Michel, but the bout will lead to a top spot in the Canadian ratings and could be considered an eliminating bout leading to the best in the west vs. the best in the east for the national belt early next year.
And did I mention, there’s an automatic rematch clause in the contract to take place in Edmonton? That’s with KO as the lead promoter in the hometown of Michel on Dec. 14.
Equal opportunities even get ordered in boxing.
The significance of this fight could possibly even transcend the sport.
The two combatants aren’t quite household names yet, but a match like this has already started to build natural ‘heat’ on social media and is now making the rounds on radio, so for hardcore and casual fight fans, this is a big fight.
Fans have questioned why promoters continue to bring in international boxers, especially Mexicans, Argentinians and Europeans, rather than other Canadians? It’s simple, most Canadian fighters won’t travel and fight outside the comfort of their own city and promotion.
In the past, folks just bought tickets to the fights. It didn’t matter how many locals were on the show.
Not anymore however, as most local audiences at the beginning and mid-levels take note of whose names are on the program. Therefore every local city across the country with a promotion will pick up and sign any local fighter regardless of their skill-set but more the fighter’s ability to attract their fan base to the show.
This, of course, is also a necessity due to the exorbitant cost of running a promotion, especially with huge expenses for sanctioning and licensing from city commissions over and above expenses such as the lights, cameras, EMS, venue rent, fighter salaries, travel, per diems, staffing and more.
In fact, it’s usually a given that the ring card girl can sometimes go home with more money than the promoter.
Also, the foreign fighters bring a level of professionalism, reliability and competitive spirit that promoters have difficulty finding domestically.
It’s like, “Hey Mike, I need to pull out of the fight. I’m going to a wedding the week before in Toronto, and I’m going to eat and drink a lot, so I know I won’t make weight. But keep me in mind for the next one.” Yeah, true story.
Reti and Michel won’t know the impact of their decision to break the status quo and actually accept an inter-provincial fight with both willing to fight outside their city and promotion until it becomes the new norm.
Also in action Nov. 3 are fastrising lightweight prospect Gwyn ‘Little Hands of Stone’ Lewis, who is undefeated at 4-0 with three KOs, and ‘Country’ Kandi Wyatt, the No. 1-rated female according to boxrec.com in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., at 140 lb.
And now in international news, we just witnessed the seventhround demolition from Anthony Joshua over Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium. Next up will be the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder clash on Dec. 1, which we all hope will build a match with that winner against Joshua next year.