Pro boxing returns to Cape Breton

For the first time in almost 30 years, there will be a pro boxing card in Sydney, this time featuring a rising local fighter.

Ryan Rozicki of Sydney Forks, N.S., — billed as the Cape Breton Thunder — will headline a nine-bout card Nov. 25 at Centre 200.

Promoter Aubrey MacLeod of L-Jack Promotions says he hopes the show draws as many as 3,000 people and that "everybody walks away dying to get to the next one."

"We could have come in and very easily got a small venue, put two or three pro fights and a bunch of amateur fights on, but then you make pro boxing a small show. So it's go big or go home."

The show will feature a red carpet, professional light and sound, video screens and a smoke machine, MacLeod said. 

Cape Breton was once a hotbed of pro boxing, with fighters such as Blair Richardson and Tyrone Gardiner gaining national recognition in the 1950s and '60s. There hasn't been a pro card on the island, though, since the 1980s.

New champion

Rozicki, 22, wants to be the one to revive it.

"I think that Cape Breton needs a new champion, because we had some very, very good champions back in the day," he said. "I could go on for days about all the great champions we had."

Rozicki, who's 6-3" and 193 pounds,  had an amateur record of 16-8, with 14 knockouts. Since turning pro, he's fought three times, scoring knockouts every time. He's hoping his Sydney fight will go the full eight rounds.

Rozicki will be fighting Kristof Demendi of Slovakia, who is ranked No. 3 in that country. Demendi has 10 wins and three losses, with six knockouts out of his 10 wins.

"He's a very dangerous fighter," Rozicki said. "A lot of people would say it's too soon of a fight for me, like he's a little bit over my head, but me and my coach Glenn, we're working very hard to hopefully pull this upset off."

Rozicki says he's a student of the great boxers of the last century.

"That's another reason I want to take tough fights, because that's what they did back then. Today boxing [has] kind of strayed off from its original … like, they used to take tough fights. They fought often and now a lot of fighters will pick and choose their opponents just to get wins.

"I don't want to be like that. I want to be the old-school era and take the tough road to the top."