Terrible's Primm Valley Casino Resort - Primm / Las Vegas, USA

JAMES KIRKLAND, ALFREDO ANGULO, and YURIOKIS GAMBOA, the undefeated trio of young boxing phenoms, with a combined record of 42-0 (35 KOs), headline "Night of the Rising Stars", Saturday, May 17, at Terrible's Primm Valley Casino Resorts. HBO Boxing After Dark will broadcast all three 10-round bouts live, beginning at 9:45 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast.)

Gamboa (9-0, 8 KOs), a 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist, has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the professional ranks since making his pro debut 12 months ago. He is well on his way toward fulfilling his lofty potential., devastating an ambitious roster of opponents.  Gamboa captured the vacant NABF super featherweight title in his last fight, in February, knocking out Johnnie Edwards (13-1-1, 7 KOs), in the first round.  The Miami, Florida resident is a bonafide Top-Five contender, rated No. 3 by the WBA and No. 5 by the WBC.  Gamboa will be facing battle-tested DARLING JIMENEZ (23-2-2, 14 KOs), from the Bronx, New York by way of the Dominican Republic, for the vacant WBC International super featherweight championship.  Jimenez returns to the ring on the heels of his finest victory, a third-round knockout of former world champion Mike Anchondo (27-1, 19 KOs).

Kirkland (21-0, 18 KOs), the junior middleweight sensation from Austin, Texas, who will be making his 2008 debut on this card, has become a one-man wrecking crew knocking out three of the four opponents he faced last year. The top-10 contender ended Mohammad Said's (23-5-1, 15 KOs), four-bout streak of knockout victories with a second round stoppage last September.  He followed that victory with a year-end finale, knocking out Allen Conyers (11-2, 9 KOs) in the first round of their November fight, despite getting knocked down himself.  Kirkland's success has catapulted him up the ratings, where he is ranked No. 4 by the World Boxing Association, No. 7 by the International Boxing Federation and No. 9 by the World Boxing Council.  He'll have his hands filled when he rumbles with EROMOSELE "BAD BOY" ALBERT.  Albert (21-1, 10 KOs), hails from Miami, Florida by way of Nigeria.  Enjoying a three-year 11-bout winning streak, Albert's last fight was a seventh-round TKO victory of the rugged Daniel Edouard (18-1-2, 10 KOs).

 Angulo (12-0, 9 KOs), from Mexicali, Mexico, recently cracked the Top-20 junior middleweight rankings thanks to his first round knockout victory of Ricardo Cortes (22-1-1, 15 KOs), in February, ending Cortes' five-year, 12-bout winning streak with an exclamation point!  

Angulo has won his last eight bouts by knockout, with only one opponent making it to the fourth round.  Angulo will be facing his toughest opponent to date in top-10 contender RICHARD "LA LÁMINA" GUTIERREZ from Miami, Florida by way of Colombia.  Gutierrez (24-1, 14 KOs), returns to the ring fresh from a career-best victory, a 10-round unanimous decision over Jose Varela (23-2, 16 KOs), in February, ending Varela's five-bout winning streak.  Gutierrez is currently world-rated No. 8 by the IBF.

Promoted by Gary Shaw Productions, LLC and Arena Box-Promotion, tickets for "Night of the Rising Stars" go on sale April 19, at 11 a.m. PT, and are priced at $84.45 , $56.95, and $40.45, including tax and $2 facility fee.  They can be purchased at Buffalo Bill's Resort box office, by calling 1-800-386-7867, at any Ticketmaster outlet, or online at www.ticketmaster.com.  Additional service fees will be incurred when purchasing through Ticketmaster.

19 Mayis Spor Salonu - Trabzon, Turkey

On April 26th ARENA Box-Promotion is back in Turkey! After the great show featuring Sinan Samil Sam vs. Oliver McCall on June 16th 2007 and the foundation of the Turkish Professional Boxing Commission in February 2008 ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner sends his stars out to the Black Sea. The show will be headlined by local hero "Mini-Tyson" Selcuk Aydin.

"The Thunderstorm from the Black Sea" ("Karadeniz Firtinasi") is going for his first professional title on April 26th in his home town when he faces Lucky Lewele from South Africa for the WBC international welterweight championship. Selcuk's stablemate Alpaslan Agüzüm lost the belt to Lewele on March 31st 2007 due to a bad cut.

Also on the card: Olympic silver medallist Atagün Yalcinkaya, middleweights Mustafa Karagöllü and Mahir "Lion" Oral who is coming back from a hand injury and the unbeaten heavyweight prospects Yakup Saglam and Steffen Kretschmann.

ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner: "I'm looking forward to a great show and it makes me proud to bring first-class boxing to Turkey again. The fans will be really fired up to see their hero Selcuk but I'm sure that they will support every fighter - it will be an unforgetable night for everybody!"

Ringside guest Roy Jones, jr.: "Markus impressed me!"

At tonight's big ARENA-show at Zenith-Kulturhalle in Munich three-time WBC super middleweight champion Markus Beyer beat Murat Mahmudov from Russia by decision after 17 months of ring absence. All three judges scored the one-sided eight-round bout 80:72 in favour of "Boom Boom" Beyer.

"It feels good to be back in the ring", stated Beyer. "This fight brings back the old confidence. My main goal was not to get hit. That worked out perfectly. Now I'm ready for bigger fights."

Maybe the next one will already be against US-superstar Roy Jones, jr. The long-time pound-for-pound-champion followed an invitation of ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner to cross the pond and be special ringside guest at the show in Munich.

"I really liked what I saw tonight", stated RJ. "All fights have been very good. Especially Markus impressed me with excellent hand speed and good movement. He's a great boxer."

Regarding negotiations about a possible bout he added "Well, I'm certainly not only here for my looks..."

ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner: "I'm very proud and happy to have Roy here and I think the fact that he came over to Germany speaks for itself. He is a businessman and the negotiations will not be easy for me. But I try my best to make this fight happen in Germany."

Asked in which weight class the two former champions would meet Jones, jr. stated: "I don't care. I've been world champion from middle- up to heavyweight. I'll take the fight at any weight you want."

Beyer's response (laughing): "Well, heavyweight might be a little too much for me - but somewhere between super middle and light heavy should work out."

Solis scores 8th win in 8th pro-fight

Olympic gold medallist Odlanier Solis left Cisse Salif from Las Vegas withour any chance. "La Sombra" dominated his opponent with one of the best performances of his young professional career impressing the audience including special ringside guest Roy Jones, jr.

The former pound-for-pound-champion congratulated the Cuban heavyweight right after the fight and later told the press what he liked most about Solis: "He's got a very good eye, excellent reflexes and outstanding hand speed – probably the fastest hands of all heavyweights at moment" stated Jones, jr. "Solis is a wonderful prospect and an up-and-coming force. I am pretty sure that I saw a future champion who will have major impact on the division."

The three-time world amateur champion clearly won all eight rounds to take home his eighth win in eight fights. Salif found no way through the strong and close defence hardly hitting the Cuban at all though he is a very experienced and tough opponent. The man from Mali (22-10-2, 20 k.o.) had almost beaten Samoan powerhouse David Tua in 2005 only losing by a contestable split decision.

"That's something I really liked about the whole show", stated Roy Jones, jr. "Ahmet Öner doesn't pick any cupcakes for his prospects. He throws them in against strong opposition at very early stages of their careers to prepare them for the rocks they have to face in title fights. You won't find many promoters in the world playing the game like this but to me it's the best way to do it."

Sinan Samil Sam defends WBC Mediterranean Championship

WBC Mediterranean heavyweight champion Sinan Samil Sam defended his title against Ratko Draskovic from Montenegro. "The Bull from Bosporus" knocked down his opponent three times in round two so referee Daniel Van den Wiele had no other choice but to stop the fight.

Sinan: "This was a good test for my European title shot against Matt Skelton. I showed that I still got what it takes to knock out strong opponents. Now I will go on to recapture my title."

Selcuk Aydin victorious as well

ARENA's strong welterweight prospect Selcuk Aydin scored his 14th win in his 14th pro-fight by unanimous decision over strong and experienced Farkhad Bakirov (before the fight 24-2-2) from Uzbekistan. Selcuk couldn't step up to his nickname "Mini-Tyson" because Bakirov managed to escape his powerful escapes but the "thunderstorm from the Black Sea" clearly dominated his opponent chasing him around the ring for the whole 8 rounds.

Ahmet Öner: "These are exactly the fights Selcuk needs to improve and develop. It was important for him to go the distance against a strong opponent. Now he is ready to go for the WBC International championship on April 25th in his hometown Trabzon."

The other results:

Heavyweight, 8 rounds
Konstantin Airich and Alex Mazikin draw

Heavyweight, 4 rounds
Edmund Gerber beats Ergin Solmaz by unanimous decision

Cruiserweight, 8 rounds
Armin Dollinger beats Kai Kurzawa by tko in round 2

Welterweight, 6 rounds
Michael Schubov beats Alexander Lykov by ko in round 2