411Boxing Report: CES "School's In" Presser

Posted by Joe Roche on 08.25.2009

411mania.com live in Providence to experience the hype for Sept. 4th.


- Jimmy Burchfield

As a New England boxing fan there is no bigger promoter then Jimmy Burchfield. The first time that I covered an event live it was presented by Classic Entertainment & Sports, Inc., and CES will return to their home base of the Twin River Event Center on Sept. 4th for "School's In." The card features co-headline bouts with "Irish" Joey McCreedy (10-2-1, 5 KO's) defending his EBA Super Middleweight Championship against Eddie "Thunder" Caminero (5-2, 5 KO's), and the true main draw of the evening Demetrius "Boo Boo" Andrade (5-0, 4 KO's) taking on John Williams (3-0-1, 2 KO's). The card promises to be one of the better local cards this year so when CES held a Press Conference on the steps of the Rhode Island Statehouse on the afternoon of August 25th I took the hour long drive down Route 146 to Providence, Rhode Island to experience the hype first hand.

The main draw of this show is surely going to be the Cape Verdean triumvirate of Demetrius Andrade, Vladine Biosse, and Diego Pereira, although Andrade assured me that he was "the cute one" of the group, he's also short changing his ability as the 2008 U.S. Olympian is also the fighter with the most promise on the Sept. 4th card. I last saw "Boo Boo" dismantle a completely outclassed Chad Greenleaf at Mohegan Sun as part of the Issac Hlathswayo – Delvin Rodriguez undercard and as Andrade's father said to me "let's just hope this guy [John Williams] brings something on Sept. 4th."


- Former URI football player, and one of the Cape Verdean fighters Vladine Biosse.

There are certain things that you can learn about boxers from their in-ring performance. However, the in-the-ring persona of a fighter only tells part of the story. To be truly successful a boxer has to possess the total package and there are certain elements of that package that are best investigated away from the ring – and that's why I made the trip to Providence on this Tuesday afternoon. Demetrius Andrade carries himself like a future superstar. While most of the other fighters arrived in some form of t-shirt, sweatpants, jeans, khakis – Andrade (and David Bauza to be fair) arrived in a shirt and tie. It's a little thing, but it let you know immediately that Andrade knew he was the feature on this afternoon and he dressed to impress.

The next thing that you notice about Demetrius as soon as he opens his mouth is that he's cool. If you don't believe me just ask him as he began his statement to the press/crowd with "if Joey [McCreedy] is the principal, then I'm the cool kid in school that everyone wants to be." Andrade continued that he was going to "teach everyone how to box, and look good doing it." My words don't do his delivery or timing justice but Demetrius spent a good amount of time joking with the crowd, and he had everyone laughing by the time his short time in front of the mic was complete. These are the moments that you don't experience when you only go to the fights, or watch the fighters on TV. Certain fighters carry with them a sense of stardom, and today, while Demetrius Andrade was speaking I felt like I was watching a star, even if he hasn't reached that plateau yet.


- Demetrius "The Cape Verdean Assassin" Andrade

While Andrade may have been the most charismatic fighter on the panel, he was not the most entertaining from a ticket selling prospective. That award went to "Irish" Joey McCreedy who has a pretty strong following in these parts for his straight ahead, smash mouth fight style. McCreedy is scheduled to face Eddie Caminero who did not appear at the press conference but sent word that he was "guaranteeing a knockout victory." McCreedy didn't take took kindly to that and quickly approached the microphone stating "What can I say about Eddie? First of all I don't like him. He didn't show up for the press conference and I hope he shows for the fight. Maybe it's better that he doesn't because I'm going to put him in a body bag. The name of the card is ‘School's In' and I'm going to be the principal. First round, I'll give him a warming, second round detention; third round, expel him. I've been in wars with ‘Bobo' and every time he's [Caminero] stepped up he's been knocked out. I will knock him out…it will be a devastating knockout."


- "Irish" Joey McCreedy

One of the other reasons to attend press events like this one is so that you can feel out the atmosphere, and trust me when I tell you that "Irish" Joey McCreedy absolutely does not like Eddie Caminero. There was a moment when McCreedy almost told a story about which his crew at the back of the crowd audibly said "do not tell that story." There is some legitimate heat between McCreedy and Caminero and both fighters are put your head down, come forward and try to destroy someone type fighters which should make for an excellent bout on Sept. 4th.

Earlier I said that there are some fighters that you see and immediately understand that they're a fighter. Some guys just have the aura of a fighter, and others carry themselves as if they are stars (or future stars). Well there was one other fighter in Providence today who just seemed like he was a star in the making and that was David Bauza, the Puerto Rican who will be making his professional debut on the Sept. 4th CES card. If you wanted to create a professional athlete you would make him look exactly like Bauza, in a completely straight way I can say that his look and build is amazing. Word going around today is that his amateur career in Puerto Rico was amazing and he scored most of his victories by knockout which is impressive for any amateur. Burchfield, and the rest of the CES crew kept saying that something special was happening on Sept. 4th when Bauza enters the ring and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that's the truth. When you're going to local "club" fights, or locally promoted fights you don't always think you're going to see a future superstar but with Demetrius Andrade, and David Bauza there may be two future studs in Lincoln, RI on Sept. 4th.


- David Bauza, and his translator/trainer

Rollback prices for "School's In" are $30.00 SRO, $35.00, $65.00 ($10.00 redeemable free play at Twin River), $100.00 ($25.00 redeemable free play at Twin River) and limited $150.00 Jimmy's Platinum Club, are available to purchase by calling CES (401.724.2253/2254), going online atwww.cesboxing.com or www.twinriver.com, at Twin River's Players Club booth at Twin River, or any TicketMaster location.