The Real Deal Sports and Entertainment owned by Evander Holyfield and Lee Baxter Promotions in association with Louisville Top Knotch and the World Boxing Council, have announced that the semi-final round of The Jose Sulaiman World Invitational Tournament will take place on Saturday, August 25th in Toronto, Canada.
The second event in the highly-anticipated international welterweight tournament will see the quarterfinal winners face each other in co-main events when South Africa’s Chris Van Heerden (26-2-1) takes on Ghana’s Fredrick Lawson (27-1) and the USA’s Brad Solomon (28-1) faces Mexico’s Francisco Santana (25-6-1).
After the tournament’s first round in April, which took place at the renowned KFC Yum Center in Louisville, Kentucky, the WBC positioned the 4 winners in their top 25 world rankings (Santana #14, Lawson #15, Van Herdeen #22, Solomon #23). The two semi-final winners in August will move up the ranks again and then go head-to-head later this year in the finals. The overall winner of the Jose Sulaiman World Invitational Tournament will be in a position to fight for the WBC Welterweight World Title in 2019.
Chris “The Heat” Van Heerden (26-2-1, 12 KO), the popular southpaw with a celebrity following has only been stopped once in his professional career, against one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, Errol Spence. Since then the South African native has been on a 3 fight win streak and is already deep into his training camp at Wildcard West in Santa Monica, California.
“Adversity introduces a man to himself and I have come face to face with it. I know what I’m made of and now the semi-final is another step closer to becoming a champion again.”
Frederick “General Okunka” Lawson (27-1, 21 KO) the power punching Ghana native now residing in The Bronx has over 20 knockouts and is eager to provide the tournament with it’s first stoppage.
“Ain’t no stopping Team Lawson now, we’re on the move. Nothing can change the course of my destiny. I respect Chris and his accomplishments but I’m just too strong and hungry for him. Watch me take him apart on fight night. General Okunka is coming to do battle and will surely prevail.”