Boxing Card Adds Ex-Titlist
Former WBA heavyweight champion Greg Page has been added to Thursday night’s boxing program at the Coeur d’Alene Casino.
Page won the WBA version of the title in December of 1984 by knocking out South African Gerrie Coetzee.
He lost it the following year to Tony Tubbs.
Page, 38, replaces headliner Gerald Nobles. An undefeated rising star from Philadelphia, Nobles was hurt in training and scratched from the card, a spokesman for the New York-based promoter, Cedric Kushner Sports Network, said Tuesday.
Page, 55-13 with 45 knockouts, will take on 28-year-old Art Pendergrass, who has won five of his last seven, including a three-round knockout of Josh Dempsey here on Feb. 4.
Doors will open at 5. The first of seven fights will start at 7. Tickets are available at the Casino or G&B outlets.
Larry Holmes was the IBF champion when Page fought for the WBA title. Holmes had been the WBC’s titleholder, but after the WBC threatened to strip him of his belt for not fighting Page, he relinquished the title, gained recognition from the IBF and opted to fight, and decision, James “Bonecrusher” Smith. A month later, Page went to Sun City, South Africa, and took out Coetzee.
Page, who has battled weight problems at times, is in shape, the promoter said, after beating a no-name opponent this week in Indiana.
In Thursday’s 10-round heavyweight cofeature, Brian Nix (9-3) of Rochester, N.Y., meets undefeated David Bostice (15-0-1) of Mesa, Ariz.
Nix has won nine of his last 10 bouts, the promoter said.
Frank Vassar of Spokane will meet Tyronne Wallace in a 6-round cruiserweight fight.