The show goes on

CELINA - The "Hometown Showdown - A Night of Professional Boxing" was postponed after flooding damaged the original venue.

But the show will go on.

The six-match boxing event -Celina's first documented boxing match since 1912 and fourth in the town's history - will take place July 27 at the Jr. Fair Building, located at 1001 W. Market St., Celina. It had originally been scheduled to be held June 1 at Grand Lakeside Pub & Catering, but flooding at the venue forced Apex Boxing Promotions' Aaron Rodriguez and Lisa Vondrell to find a new site.

"We could have cancelled this and all that," said Rodriguez, "but everybody's going through adversity around here with the flood and the tornado. It was kind of a moral thing for us.

"We're going to stick to 'Celina Strong,' " Vondrell added. "We're going to stick to our guns and bring the show that we planned to have and give the town some entertainment."

Their plan certainly has potential.

Mother Nature hit them with a left hook in May, and the battle raged on longer than expected. Rodriguez and Vondrell made still made it work and are hoping the event will add to the excitement of Lake Festival weekend.

"This is going to be like a television-quality show," Rodriguez said. "This is going to exceed anybody's expectations."

Both Rodriguez, 40, and Vondrell, 36, are former fighters. Rodriguez went professional but stopped after one fight. Vondrell, a Celina High School graduate, boxed as an amateur while at Ohio University. A love of the sport always continued for both.

Rodriguez has been a part of 50 events in his 10 years as a promoter/ match maker, which includes 25 in the last two years. He's worked on shows for Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions and Don King. The fight in Celina will be Rodriguez's final one, he said.

"This one's kind of special because this is her home, and it's become like a home to me, too," said Rodriguez, originally from Florida. "I really put a lot into this one. … It's pretty fitting for it to end here, for this to be my last one."

Vondrell has been working behind the scenes with Rodriguez for several years but this is her first as a co-promoter. They launched Apex Boxing Promotions months ahead of the Celina fight.

"Celina's in our heart," Vondrell said. "His family is here. I grew up here. We both love boxing and we want to share it."

It hasn't been easy to make the event happen, either. Not only did Rodriguez and Vondrell lose the first venue, they also lost their star boxer - Celina native Mike Wessel - to an injury. One Celina grad will be boxing, however, as Caleb Fickert will make his debut against Justin Parks in a cruiser division bout.

Hometown Showdown features a co-main event, which includes a middle weight bout between Benton Harbor, Michigan's Tipton Walker Jr. (6-0-1) and Cleveland's Fred Wilson Jr. (6-0-1) and a super light fight featuring Defiance's Raymond "Little Rock" Castaneda (5-0-0) and Ann Arbor, Michigan's Maurice Anthony (1-0-0).

Lima's Carlos Suarez (10-3-1) - who boxed for Trinidad in the 2012 London Olympics - will square off with Atlanta's Rondarius Hunter (4-4-1) in a flyweight match. Van Wert's Paul Barton and Toledo's Michael Widmer will each make their cruiserweight boxing debuts, with a light weight fight between Cleveland's Darnell Pettis (3-14-0) and Lima's Eddie Hines (1-0-0) starting the night.

"The guys who are fighting are all talented fighters," Rodriguez said. "They're all from small towns and don't get a lot of exposure because they're not in the city. But all these guys who are the stars of the show are people who are from similar towns (to Celina)."

Prior to June 1, Rodriguez and Vondrell were visiting Grand Lakeside Pub & Catering on the regular, working to get the word out and making sure boxers received proper medical exams and blood work ahead of fight night.

"You have to get insurance (for each fight)," Vondrell explained. "You have to get the commission from the state of Ohio, like a permit. You have to have your venue inspected and approved. You have to make sure that it's OK, that it's got everything that it needs. All the fights have to be approved. Then obviously you have to worry about everything with the event as well."

The promoters have been busy since then, too. And in a matter of days, as boxing referee Mills Lane would say, it's finally time to "get it on."

"You're not going to want to miss it. It's going to be something to remember," Rodriguez said.

The pre-fight weigh in will be held at 5 p.m. on June 26 at 211 S. Main St, Celina. Doors open at 7 p.m. on June 27. Famed ring announcer Pete Trevino Jr. will introduce the opening fighters at 8 p.m. Alcohol will be sold at the show. Ticket information can be found at CelinaBoxing.eventbrite.com or by calling 352-201-1909.