Many of the fans packed the venue primarily to support “Four State Franchise” members Kenzie Morrison, Jesse Cook and Dillon Cook. Things however quickly changed.
On that evening, Baranchyk destroyed fellow unbeaten Nicholas Givhan in 21 seconds with a crushing left hook. Exactly three months later, Baranchyk returned to the Buffalo Run Casino and had the fans watching him closely. The explosive 23-year-old delivered again, stopping another unbeaten fighter Eliseo Cruz Sesma in less than three rounds. A fighter previously unknown to locals quickly became in demand.
“The fans here fell in love with Ivan,” said Promoter Tony Holden, who has promoted fights for more than 25 years. “He’s got a great style that can win over a crowd that may not have known much about him and that’s exactly what he did in his last two fights.”
In August, Holden signed Baranchyk to a co-promotional agreement, working in association with DiBella Entertainment and Fight Promotions Inc.
Now a member of the “Four State Franchise,” Baranchyk looks to run his record to 12-0 with 11 knockouts when he meets 7-0 Zhimin Wang of China in a ten round contest for the USBA junior welterweight title Friday evening at the Buffalo Run Casino. The Branchyk-Wang bout takes places on a ShoBox quadrupleheader featuring three other exciting matchups between fighters with a combined record of 96-3-1. The card airs live on Showtime at 10 pm ET and tickets to the fight are sold out.
With a win, Baranchyk will likely be ranked in the top 15 and move onto bigger fights. However, the Brooklyn, NY based Russian is solely focused on entertaining his newfound supporters.
Baranchyk said of his upcoming bout, “I’m excited beyond belief to once again fight on Shobox and in my new hometown of Miami, OK. This time (my opponent) is much more serious but I am prepared to fight anyone. I am going to show a high level of boxing and god willing the fight will end early in a knockout.”
