Angelo Leo seeks return to title glory, must get past Mike Plania first
Angelo Leo needed an opportunity and platform to show he is a legit contender at 126 pounds.
ProBox TV was able to provide both.
Leo could be a fight or two away from a world title shot should he defeat Mike Plania Wednesday night at the Whitesands (also known as the ProBox TV) Events Center in Plant City, Florida. The 10-round bout will headline a four-bout card that will stream live on the ProBox TV application and YouTube page (8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT).
At Tuesday’s weigh-in, both Leo and Plania weighed in at 125.6 pounds.
The 29-year-old Leo (22-1, 10 knockouts), who lives and trains in Las Vegas, Nevada, last fought on November 1, dominating Nicholas Polanco before stopping him in the ninth round. The win over Polanco was Leo’s first fight since defeating Aaron Alameda by unanimous decision in June 2021, his last fight under contract with Mayweather Promotions.
“We are excited with Angelo’s progress in a new weight class,” ProBox TV’s Chris Glover told The Ring Monday night. “We are attracting fighters like Angelo. He’s been given nothing, but worked for everything.
“Plania is strong and game. He’s going to come to fight, but we believe a great performance is what Angelo is going to show on Wednesday. Angelo is going to look for the knockout against Plania. He will fight anyone, but the dollars have to make sense.”
Leo is a former WBO world junior featherweight titleholder, losing the world title belt to Stephen Fulton in January 2021. He has won two fights since the loss to Fulton.
In a recent interview with The Ring, Leo stated he had sparred against the likes of newly-crowned WBC world lightweight titleholder Shakur Stevenson and multi-division world titleholder Nonito Donaire.
Plania (29-3, 16 KOs), who resides in General Santos City in the Philippines, knocked out Daniel Nicolas in the opening round of his last fight on December 18. In his previous fight on August 4, Plania was knocked out by junior featherweight contender Elijah Pierce in the third round.
The 26-year-old also has mixed results in recent fights. In September 2022, he lost by unanimous decision to junior featherweight contender Ra’eese Aleem, and dropped Joshua Greer twice en route to a majority decision victory in June 2020.
In the co-feature, Trevor McCumby will face Christopher Pearson (17-3-1, 12KOs) of Selma, Texas in a 10-round super middleweight fight.
McCumby (27-0 1 NC, 21 knockouts), who resides in Glendale, Arizona, returned from a four-and-a-half year hiatus to knock out Vicente Rodriguez on May 6. The 31-year-old returned to action seven weeks later, scoring a knockout win over Rodolfo Ezequiel Martinez.
Pearson has only fought twice since a career-best unanimous decision victory over previously-unbeaten Yamaguchi Falcao in May 2019. In his last bout on August 26, Pearson fought to a split-decision draw against Derrick Webster.
Romero Duno (26-3, 20 KOs) of the Philippines will square off against Mexico City’s Antonio Moran (29-6-1, 20 KOs) in a 10-round bout at a catchweight of 137 pounds.
In the opening bout of the ProBox TV stream, unbeaten featherweight prospect Mykell Gamble (6-0, 4 KOs) of Cincinnati, Ohio will face Damian Alcala (7-3, 1 KO) of Chula Vista, California in a six-round bout.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at santio89@yahoo.com
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