Philly Plain Dealer

On Saturday April 27th at the Liacouras Center there will be a ten-match boxing event with a positive anti-gun violence slant. Let’s Settle Volume One will feature more than 20 boxers, as well as performances by rappers D-Sturdy and Neekbucks, all in the name of community and handling issues without weapons. 

The event is being put on by Teflon Promotions owned by Dominique Walton, he told the Plain Dealer “The reason why we call it ‘Let’s Settle’ is there’s a lot of violence and killing going on in the city of Philadelphia and we want to build a platform where we can show that we can come together as a community together from different neighborhoods and be able to get along.” 

Walton made it clear that Teflon Promotions and Teflon Fitness Center are not a non-profit organization, however he does feel a responsibility to improve and uplift his community. “I’m not a nonprofit organization,” says Walton, “but it’s a lot of kids that come to my gym that can’t afford it and I don’t turn my back on them. You feel me? I feel like if I turn my back on them and something happens to these kids, all I can do is blame myself.”

Local artist and peace activist Ant Brown is working as a community liaison for Teflon Promotions and noted the structure that boxing can provide for the youth “having programs, having mentors, having people around you, having people that provide you opportunity can get you to the next level.” 

Walton agreed, adding “the reason why I use boxing for this is because boxing helped me. You get what I’m saying? Boxing helped me more than any program. A DHS worker actually got me into boxing because I was a troubled child, and had anger issues. I’m always fighting, I’m always acting up. I’m always in the middle of something and then once they got me into boxing it, it just like, it humbled me.”

Walton explained that Teflon will be supporting “at least two youth organizations on every show” they throw. The recipients being acknowledged on April 27th include Rickey Duncan from the NOMO Foundation, Mel Wells from One Day at a Time, Anton Moore for Unity in the Community, Ryan Harris from As I Plant This Seed and Corey Floca from Flocka World Entertainment.

Ant Brown noted “Philly is a fight capital, this is a boxing city. The problem is there’s no big boxing promotion entity in Philly.” 

The boxing itself will feature legitimate fighters like the main event between Andrew Tabiti (20-2-0) and Junior Wright (20-4-1). This could be the birth of a monster boxing promotion born out of Philadelphia. There is a number of local Philly boxers on the card like Jesse Hart, Tariq Green, and Richard Johnson.

The full list of fighters on April 27th’s Let’s Settle card are: 

• Jesse Hart
• Daniel Aduku
• Andrew Tabiti
• Junior Wright 
• Nikita Ababiy 
• Cleotis Pendarvis 
• Mushin Cason 
• Deshon Webster 
• Dylan Price 
• Sebastian Franzolini 
• Joey Dawejko 
• Walter Burns 
• Hank Lundy 
• Juan De La Cruz
• Tariq Green 
• Rancy Slanger 
• Seifullah Wise 
• Aaron Newmones 
• Shamsuddeen Justice 
• Maurice Clemons 
• Frankie Lynn 
• Richard Johnson 
• Deron Eillis 
• Juan Marrero

It’d be good for the city to have a homegrown boxing promotion that values community partners, go to Teflon Promotions to learn more about Saturday’s bouts.