Russell Lamour Jr., a Deering High graduate and the New England middleweight champion, will put his 10-0 professional record on the line this fall as part of a boxing card at the Portland Expo on Nov. 15.

The card, the 100th event promoted by the Portland Boxing Club, will feature two amateur fights and four or five pro bouts. Michael Spinks, the Olympic gold medalist and world champion in the light-heavyweight and heavyweight divisions, will be a celebrity guest.

“This is a great venue,” said Bobby Russo, the promoter, manager and coach who staged two earlier fight cards at the Expo, in November 2013 and June of this year. “This really has the big-fight feel, it really does. There’s an amazingly enthusiastic crowd.”

Russo and Lamour appeared at a press conference Monday at the Expo to publicize the event.

Lamour’s opponent is yet to be determined, but Russo said the fight would either be a title defense or a bid for the vacant North American middleweight championship.

The card also includes PBC fighters Jorge Abiague (6-0 as a pro) in the bantamweight division, Brandon Berry (7-0 as a pro) at super lightweight and Scarborough native Jason Quirk, the New England Golden Gloves middleweight champion, who will make his pro debut.

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Abiague, 34, was born in Cuba but lives in Portland. Berry, 26, is from West Forks, where his family runs a general store. Quirk, 25, is a Portland firefighter who spent four years on active duty in the Coast Guard after graduating from Scarborough High in 2007.

Quirk played hockey and football throughout high school. He started training with Russo at age 15 and had his first bout at 16.

“The way it used to be, you’d get your name on a waiting list and then you’d randomly get a call,” Quirk said. “It’s not like Planet Fitness; you can’t just go in and use the machines. You have to know a little bit. But it just happened to be that the night I went in was ‘Beginners Night,’ so I kind of skipped the two-year waiting list. It was almost like destiny that I got in when I did.”

As a pro, Quirk will box without protective headgear, use 10-ounce gloves instead of 12 and, if all goes well, compete for four rounds rather than three.

“I think you guys are all in for a hell of a ride with Jason as a professional,” said Berry, who trains at home and at a gym in Stockton Springs, which is still more than two hours away from his hometown in the upper Kennebec River Valley.

“I’m from almost three hours away, but when I come down here, everybody in the crowd makes me feel right at home,” Berry said. “It’s just an unbelievable feeling. I can’t wait for that night.”

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Berry and Lamour fought and won matches Thursday night at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Berry earned a technical knockout over Theo Desjardin of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, at 2 minutes, 18 seconds of the opening round. It was his fifth career knockout.

Lamour needed only two of a scheduled six rounds for his bout with Dennis Ogboo of Lexington, Kentucky, when Ogboo was unable to answer the bell for the third round.

Abiague is scheduled to fight Oct. 3 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, against fellow unbeaten bantamweight Nate Green of New Haven.

Promoter Al Valenti described the opponents for all four boxers as “a work underway. We’ll probably announce the opponents sometime in the next two or three weeks.”

Tickets for the November event at the Expo go on sale Monday at PortTIX and at Bruno’s Restaurant near the Portland Boxing Club at 33 Allen Ave.

“I love fighting at home,” Lamour said. “The fans here really know me.”


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