CES Boxing presents Winter Brawl at Mohegan Sun Arena

CES Boxing presents Winter Brawl at Mohegan Sun Casino on Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 7:00 pm in the Mohegan Sun Arena.

With a new year comes fireworks, and CES Boxing is ready to light up the sky with an epic showcase at one of the world’s premier entertainment venues. Winter Brawl, CES Boxing’s 2023 season opener, comes to Mohegan Sun Arena at 7:00pm on Saturday, January 21st.

CES Boxing and CES MMA (Classic Entertainment & Sports Inc) has a long history of being the premiere Professional Boxing Promotions Company in New England.

Winter Brawl features a stacked lineup headlined by hard-hitting heavyweight “The Sicilian Nightmare” Juiseppe Cusumano facing “The Hungarian Hammer” Istvan Bernath in the 10-round main event.

Fresh off his knockout win over Dennis Ventura in August at Mohegan Sun Arena, Cusumano (21-4, 19 KOs) returns to face the 6-foot-4 Bernath (10-1, 8 KOs), a two-time silver medalist at the European Union Amateur Boxing Championships. Bernath was born in Budapest and now fights out of Miami.

The 10-round Cusumano-Bernath showdown is one of 11 fights at Winter Brawl, which also features the long-awaited return of light middleweight Chordale Booker (17-1, 7 KOs) from Stamford in an eight-round showcase against 37-fight veteran Angel Hernandez (17-17-3, 11 KOs), plus a highly anticipated six-round interstate battle between Michael Valentin (7-1-1, 1 KO) of Providence, Rhode Island, and the undefeated Kevin Walsh (6-0, 4 KOs) of Brockton, Massachusetts.

Mixed martial arts standout John Gotti III of Oyster Bay, New York, returns to CES for his second professional boxing match. Gotti is no stranger to the limelight; the highly touted MMA welterweight prospect made his professional debut in the cage at CES 46 in Rhode Island in October 2017 and went on to win his first four bouts by first-round knockout. Gotti will take on Alex Citrowske (1-1-1, 1 KO) of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, in a four-round cruiserweight bout.

In another potential showstopper, undefeated welterweight Josniel Castro (9-0, 7 KOs), a Boca Raton, Florida, native who’s fought his entire pro career in New England, faces one of his toughest tests to date in a six-round showdown against Quebec native and Boston resident Mitch Louis Charles (6-3-2, 3 KOs).

Winter Brawl also marks the return of female welterweight Stevie Jane Coleman (3-1, 1 KO), who faces New Jersey’s Michaele Nogue (2-2) in a four-round bout, and Worcester super middleweight Kendrick Ball Jr. (19-1-2, 12 KOs) in a six-round bout against Argentinian and 22-fight vet Victor Hugo Exner.

In preliminary action, Brockton heavyweight Chad Leoncello (1-0-1, 1 KO), fresh off his first career victory in November, faces Boston’s Wallace Nass Silva (0-4) in a four-round bout and MMA standout Mike Kimbel of Watertown, Connecticut, makes his professional boxing debut against Robert Banks (0-1) of Monroeville, New York, also in a four-round bout.

Since the first event on September 17th, 2010, CES has made a prominent standing in the world of Professional Mixed Martial Arts. With uncontested promotions, CES continues to expand its clientele and produce high quality productions, year after year.