Team Combat - Boston Butchers open season Thursday

With the Boston Butchers’ opener less than a week away, the new entry in the Team Combat League is looking to prove that New England’s boxing talent doesn’t take a back seat to anyone’s.

“What we have is what I think is the best top to bottom talent in the league,” said Marc Gargano, the Butchers’ head coach during Thursday’s press conference at Peter Welch’s Gym to introduce the team.

The Team Combat League is in its second season. The Butchers open the season on Thursday, April 11 at the Oceanside Events Center in Revere, Massachusetts against the DC Destroyers (8 p.m., Eastern time).

The remaining four home contests will take place at the Royale in Boston’s Theater District. Once known as The Roxy, the nightclub hosted the Vince Phillips vs Micky Ward junior welterweight title fight in 1997. It’s also hosted many of the region’s other top boxers in the past quarter century, including John Ruiz, Dana Rosenblatt, and Jose Antonio Rivera 

The format is rather unique, with each team putting together a lineup of 24 boxers. Each boxer fights one round against an opponent from the other team. The round is scored on a 10-point must system, the same as any other round in any other professional bout, though if the round ends in a knockout or TKO, it’s scored as 10-7.

At the end of the 24 rounds, the team with the most points wins.

The league has 12 teams. Each team consists mostly of fighters who reside near the team’s host city.

“You look at teams like the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins, their athletes are from all over the country  and world,” said the Butchers’ assistant general manager Pat Sullivan. “These guys live around here. They train around here. The work around here. They go to church around here.. The team is as Boston as you can get..”

Most of the Butchers are from Massachusetts, though some are from Rhode Island, Connecticut, or New Hampshire. The names on the roster are mostly familiar to fans of New England boxing. Fighters like James Parella of Mansfield, Massachusetts, Irvin Gonzalez of Worcester, Massachusetts, Alejandro Paulino of New London, Connecticut, Francis Hogan of Walpole, Massachusetts, and Cassius Chaney of New London, Connecticut have headlined club shows all over New England and Hogan holds a WBC US Silver title, as does Paulino.

One boxer, Amelia Moore of Winthrop, Massachusetts, is making her pro debut after winning multiple national amateur titles.

Another one of the six females on the roster, Shelly Vincent, came out of retirement to be on the team. She had previously fought Heather Hardy twice in nationally televised bouts.

Another Butcher, Rashidi Ellis of Lynn, Massachusetts, will be making a homecoming of sorts. Ellis, the former WBC International welterweight titleholder, has not fought in Boston in 11 years. While under contract with Golden Boy and then Premier Boxing Champions, he fought just about everywhere but his hometown.

“I’m excited to be back here,” said Ellis(24-1, 15 KOs), who suffered his first pro loss in his last fight, a majority decision against Roiman Villa on January 7, 2023. “I’ve always lived in the gym.”

 Ellis’ brother, Ronald, fought in the league last year.

 “He told me you just have to go out and kick ass,” Ellis said.

With each fighter getting just one round, there’s no time to feel out their opponents.

“That’s something we’ve worked on in training,” Gargano said.

The Butchers’ general manager is Jimmy Burchfield, the president of Providence, Rhode Island-based Classic

Entertainment and Sports, a company he has been running for more than 30 years, promoting the likes of Vinny Paz, Ray Oliveira, Matt Godfrey, Jason Estrada, and Chad Dawson.

“We’re going to represent New England well,” he said. “We want to sell out the fights.”