Tickets start at $40 and go on sale today (Tuesday, April 2) at 5 pm ET for the Friday, April 19, 2013, “Fortuna vs. Zamudio”, a night of world-championship professional boxing being presented by Sampson Boxing at the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City and live on ESPN Friday Night Fights.

In the night’s main event, La Romana, Dominican Republic’s dynamic Javier “El Abejon” Fortuna (21-0, 15 KOs) will defend his interim WBA World featherweight title against Sinaloa, Mexico’s Miguel “Mikol” Zamudio (25-1-1, 13 KOs) in an intriguing 12-round clash.

This will be the first title defense for the always exciting Fortuna, who won the crown last December against Ireland’s Patrick Hyland via 12-round decision.

Also scheduled for televised battle are St. Thomas, Virgin Islands’ promising, once-beaten John “Dah Rock” Jackson (15-1, 14 KOs) and St. Paul, Minnesota’s undefeated “Sir” Cerresso Fort (16-0-1, 11 KOs), who will lock up in a six-round junior middleweight war.

Completing the televised tripleheader will be Ghana’s Emmanuel Lartei Lartey (14-0-1, 7 KOs) taking on the Dominican Republic’s Jonathan Batista (13-0, 6 KOs) in a six/eight-round welterweight battle of undefeateds.

Sampson Boxing President, Sampson Lewkowicz, says he’s excited to be bringing an event like this to the Tropicana.

“This is going to be a great show. We have a world-championship fight in the main event between a Dominican and a Mexican, so that will be very exciting and the two supporting bouts are between top up-and-coming fighters. It’s a terrific night of boxing and I’m very happy to be able to bring it to a world-class casino like the Tropicana.”

After 5 pm today, tickets for “Fortuna vs. Zamudio” will be available at all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster.com, by calling 1-800-745-3000 or at the Tropicana box office on fight night.

Four other bouts featuring local favorites are also scheduled and will be announced shortly. On fight night, doors open @ 6:30 pm and the first fight is at 7:00. The Tropicana Casino & Resort is located at 2831 Boardwalk in Atlantic City.

Manny Pacquiao 147 – Juan Manuel Marquez 143
Yuriorkis Gamboa 130 – Michael Ferenas 130
Patrick Hyland 126 – Javier Fortuna 126

Photps by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS (November 29, 2012) – Irish and boxing have been synonymous for more than a century. Undefeated featherweight Patrick “The Punisher” Hyland, one of three prizefighting Hyland brothers, certainly embodies the popular sobriquet, “The Fightin’ Irish.”

Dublin-native Hyland (27-0, 12 KOs) plans to continue making Irish boxing history on December 8, when he fights fellow undefeated challenger Javier “El Abejon” Fortuna for the interim World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight title, fighting on the HBO Pay-Per-View event headlined by Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marguez 4, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The 29-year-old Hyland, who is promoted by Final Round Promotions and Team Snooki Boxing, made a major commitment to boxing a year ago, moving from Ireland to Marlboro, New York in order to be trained by two-time two-division world champion Tracy Harris Patterson. Rated No. 6 by the WBA, Hyland already holds the Republic of Ireland boxing record for most consecutive wins to start a professional career (27), and he’ll become the first Ireland-born world featherweight champion with a win Dec. 8.

Hyland would become the first Irishman to capture a world title since Bernard Dunne (WBA super bantamweight) in 2009, also joining Dunne and Stevie Collins as the only Dubliners as world champions. In fact, Hyland would be only the seventh Irishman (Ireland national born), dating back to the late 1800’s, in an exclusive group that also includes George Gardner, Mike McTigue and Hall of Famers Barry McGuigan and Jack McAuliffe.

“I’ve had tunnel vision for this fight and didn’t know I could become the first world featherweight champion born in Ireland,” Hyland said. “It feels great to hear that as well as have a chance to be mentioned in the same class with those other Irish world boxing champions.”

WBA No. 2-rated Fortuna (20-0, 15 KOs), fighting out of the Dominican Republic, is a 23-year-old southpaw. “Fortuna is an explosive fighter and it’s a pleasure to share the ring with him,” always the gentleman Hyland noted. “He’s a lefty, which is a problem for most right-handed fighters, but we’ve trained hard to move to the left. I have to stay sharp and focused, especially the first few rounds, so he doesn’t catch me. Our plan is to take him into deep water and see what he has left.”

Hyland will be fighting in Las Vegas for the first time. He doesn’t plan on hitting the strip, at least not on this particular trip, and everything there has been all business for the personable boxer with a thick brogue.

“It’s hard to describe,” Hyland spoke about fighting on the HBO PPV in Las Vegas. “Manny Pacquaio is the best known boxer in the world and fighting on his undercard hasn’t really sunk in, yet, and it probably won’t until after the fight It has gone through my mind but it’s all been positive We have two unbeaten fighters who both want to win and get that belt. We’ll put on a show, fighting on the biggest stage (HBO PPV in Las Vegas), and we could steal the show.”

One of Hyland’s promoters, Mike Pascale (Final Round Promotions), believes that it’s Hyland’s time to shine. “This fight is the culmination of Patrick’s training as a boxer since the age of seven. As always, he has trained hard and will lay it all on the line on December 8th. The Hyland-Fortuna fight will be a real barnburner. Patrick will shock many when his arm is raised as the winner. This is Patrick Hyland’s time and he will not be denied.”

Clan Hyland

About Final Round Promotions: A full-service boxing and MMA promotional company, Final Round Promotions is based in Poughkeepsie, New York and operated by Mike Pascale and Brian Burke.

About Team Snooki Boxing: Founded by one of the stars of MTV’s reality shows, Jersey Shore and JWoww, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, and her father, Andy.