Groupe Yvon Michel (GYM) will organize its first event in 16 months – “The Homecoming: Rivas vs. Louis 2” — Tuesday night, March 16 at Hotel Plaza Quebec in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
“The Homecoming,” presented in co-promotion with New Era Fighting & Promotion and in collaboration of Lee Baxter Promotions is headlined by a rematch featuring Oscar “Kaboom” Rivas (26-1, 18 KOs) and Sylvera “Sly” Louis (8-5, 4 KOs) in the 8-round main event. Rivas defeated Louis by 4-round majority decision back in 2012.
A representative of his native Colombia at the 2008 Olympics, Rivas is coming off a controversial loss July 20, 2019, by way of a 12-round decision to Dillian Whyte (25-1) in the United Kingdom for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) Interim heavyweight title.
A maximum of 120 fans for a total of 250 peoples will be allowed to attend “The Homecoming.” Boxers and trainers had to have quarantined for 14 days prior to the event, and they must carefully check any Covid potential symptoms during 10 days after the fights.
Rivas is rated No. 1 in the WBC’s new weight class, Bridgerweight (200 to 224 lbs.), and he and Louis will participate in the Bridgerweight’s inaugural fight.
“It was not easy to put all the parts in place, to have our sanitary protocol accepted and to obtain all the required authorizations while Quebec City was in the worst of the Covid pandemic time and
declared a red zone,” GYM president Yvon Michel said. “It has been tireless teamwork for several months and full collaboration from the participants. It is an expensive but important adventure for the relaunch of our activities and the restarting of the careers of our boxers. This gala will allow several boxers to regain hope and WBC # 1 aspirant Oscar Rivas to restart the machine for whom we have very ambitious plans this year.”
“The Homecoming” will be streamed live by FITE worldwide on the FITE mobile apps, all major OTT apps and website (www.FITE.tv), starting at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, for $29.99 USD (available in English or French). It will also be available in Canada via Canal Indigo, Bell TV, Shaw TV and YOOP.
In the co-featured event, Canadian favorite Sebastian Bouchard (18-2, 8 KOs) takes on welterweight Mario Perez (20-7-5, 12 KOs) in a 6-tound bout. It will be the first fight for Bouchard since he was injured in the ring in November 2019.
Former NBA and NABO middleweight champion Patrice Volny (25-1, 18 KOs) squares off against former Canada middleweight titlist Janko Trotter (10-5-2) in a super middleweight clash of Canadians. This is a very important fight for IBF #6 ranked Volny who has been appointed to box Polish Patrick Wojcicki, IBF #3, for the mandatory position to challenge world champion Gennady Golovkin in May.
Former Canadian amateur champion and member of the Canadian National Team, Alexis Barrière, will make is long awaited pro debut when he meets Colin Sangster (2-0, 2 KOs) in a 4-round fight between Canadian heavyweight prospects.
There matches showcasing cruiserweights are also on tap on the undercard: Popular Yan “Wild Thing” Pellerin (10-1, 4 KOs) vs. Marco Parente (1-4-3) in a 6-rounder, plus a pair of 4-round fights between Francis Charbonneau (2-1, 2 KOs) vs. Alexandre Roberge (1-0, 0 KOs), and Alexander Beaule (1-0l 1 KO) vs. Nick “Big Mac” Naccarato (0-0-1).
