Weigh In Shields vs Hammer

The excitement is building! Just got the weights for tomorrow night's Unification Championship Match with Claressa Shields coming in at 159 1/4 and Hammer checking in at 159 even. This is the final installment of the pre-fight blog and I want to write about the afternoon in Atlantic City yesterday. The two combatants met with youngsters from the New Jersey Give A Kid A Dream and the Girls In Gloves community organizations and delivered a boxing program for these kids to remember always. The event took place at the Atlantic City Police Athletic League (PAL) building in town.

Here's a quote from each fighter:

Shields: "Seeing the kids reminded me so much of the way I grew up. I grew up in a place just like this. It made me a little emotional."

Hammer: " I hope I can inspire them to keep going in this sport. It is a great way to lift your life up and you learn a lot from a sport like this."

Before closing, I do want to mention briefly the promoter for this historic event: Mr. Dmitriy Salita. Dmitriy was born in Ukraine (The World Boxing Review's "Country of the Year" for 2018) and now resides and operates Salita Promotions in Brooklyn, NYC. A former welterweight known as the "Star of David" finished a stellar career with a 35-2-1 record, scoring 18 knockouts. He lost to Amir Khan back on December 5, 2009 but won the open IBF International Super Lightweight title with a UD over Derrick Campos. He defeated James Wayka for the vacant USA-New York State Welterweight belt back in 2010. Salita Promotions debuted on December 16, 2015 at Webster Hall in NYC, headlined by Junior Anthony Wright, a cruiserweight he still represents. He also represents fellow Brooklynite Jerrell "Big Baby" Miller, who will be fighting Anthony Joshua at Madison Square Garden on June 1st. But that's for a later date.

I'll be en route to AC tomorrow morning and will be broadcasting live from the beach. It says rain until 10am so I should be good! We will be active from 6pm as the fights begin so please keep checking us out throughout the night tomorrow. Also tune into our show at 11am (blogtalkradio.com/theworldboxingreview) with featured guest Pinklon Thomas, who once fought at the famed Boardwalk Hall.

Talk to you soon...

Bob Murray

TheWBR