BOXING
Leo's next fight likely headed for Michigan
The challenger, Ra’eese Aleem, is from Michigan and his promoter won the purse bid
Angelo Leo’s professional boxing career has taken him to California, Colorado, Nevada, Georgia, Connecticut, Texas, Florida and his home state of New Mexico, as well as two foreign countries: Mexico and Japan.
So … Michigan? Why not?
That’s where the Albuquerque native’s next defense of his International Boxing Federation featherweight title appears headed.
And if the proper question actually is “why?” rather than “why not?” it’s because that apparently is where the promoter of an IBF-mandated Leo defense against Michigan native Ra’eese Aleem wants to take it.
On Tuesday, boxing legend Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions won a purse bid and with it the right to stage the Leo-Aleem bout. Aleem, a native of Muskegon County, Michigan who like Leo lives and trains in Las Vegas, is aligned promotionally with the company.
Early on Wednesday, veteran combat sports journalist Lance Pugmire, writing for boxingscene.com, quoted MP Promotions President Sean Gibbons as saying Pacquiao wants to bring Aleem home to Michigan, where he hasn’t fought since 2015, to fight for a world title.
“It’s a great story,” Gibbons told Pugmire. “Hometown kid goes to Las Vegas to chase his boxing dreams, and now comes home for a world-title challenge. Now he’s come full circle.”
Gibbons said the target date is early May.
If it seems unfair that Leo as the champion would have to defend his title on the challenger’s turf, there’s plenty of precedent.
In August 2024, then-IBF featherweight champion Luis Alberto “Venado” Lopez came to Albuquerque to defend against Leo — and lost by 10th-round knockout.
In May of last year, Leo chose to defend the title against Japan’s Tomoki Kameda in the latter’s hometown of Osaka. Leo (26-1, 12 knockouts) retained the belt with a victory by majority decision.
An attempt by the Journal to reach Leo for comment on Wednesday was unsuccessful.
Garry Jonas of Probox Promotions, Leo’s promotional firm, was the only bidder for the Leo-Aleem fight other than MP. Jonas told Pugmire that he welcomed the fight in the challenger’s home state and believed Leo would as well.
“Angelo Leo has proven to be very resilient,” Jonas said. “He’s gone to Japan and prevailed. We’ll go wherever they bring this fight and we’ll prevail there, too.”
Muskegon, a city of some 40,000 essentially on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, is located some 200 miles from Detroit but just 42 miles from Grand Rapids, which on Feb. 10 was the site of a pro boxing card that featured Albuquerque’s Jose Luis “Guero” Sanchez.
A search of newspaper archives revealed that Aleem (23-1,12 KOs) actually is from the nearby town of Ravenna (population some 1,300), where he was a star running back for the Ravenna Bulldogs as a teen.
