Published Friday, September 30, 2005

Thompson set to fight for 'other' title

Local boxer to face Rieder for Midwest belt

By Rick Peterson
The Capital-Journal

Topeka pro boxer Marc Thompson was ready for the biggest fight of his career. It will have to wait.

Thompson, 13-0 with 11 knockouts, was scheduled to fight for the North American Boxing Council lightweight title on Saturday night's 6:30 p.m. card at Landon Arena, but that bout was scratched when his scheduled foe pulled out of the fight. Instead, Thompson will now fight 2-2 Chris Rieder for the Midwest championship.

"I guess the guy I was supposed to fight ended up getting hurt about a week and a half ago," Thompson said. "I guess he strained his shoulder, that's what he's saying, but whatever happens, happens."

The fact that the NABC bout was scrubbed was obviously a disappointment for Thompson, who will fight a bout scheduled for eight rounds against Rieder.

"You train so hard anyway, but you train hard to get ready for a fight and I trained harder than I normally do for this one because I knew it was a title fight and I definitely wanted to win it, especially being in my home town," said Thompson, a Seaman graduate.

"But you just go with what happens and like Damon (trainer Damon Reed) said, it's going to be out there again so we'll just go ahead and do this Midwest belt thing. That way all my fans will hopefully still get to see me get a belt and we'll do it again later on."

Thompson understands that last-minute changes happen, particularly in boxing, but he's anxious to get a shot to take the next step up boxing's ladder.

"Raul (Munoz) has been there and there have been some other fighters out of Topeka who have been there and I'm at the point where I'm ready and I want to be there now," he said.

Regardless of who gets in the ring against him Saturday, Thompson is ready for the fight.

"I cannot wait. Everybody's pumped up about it, everybody's pumped up about the show and I've got a bunch of fans that haven't seen me fight before so I can't wait to go in and show them what I can do," he said.

Several other local favorites are scheduled to be in action Saturday, including Andy Sample, Dominique Alexander, Michie Munoz and Will Evans.

Tickets start at $20.

Rick Peterson can be reached at (785) 295-1129 or rick.peterson@cjonline.com.