February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The scheduled four-round featherweight match will be on the undercard of a Sugar Ray Leonard Promotions show that will be televised nationally by ESPN2, starting at 9 p.m.
Dunne, a 22-year-old Dubliner who has most of the boxing world raving about his skills, is coming off a one-round KO of Simon Ramirez in Oklahoma last month and is penciled in for another fight on March 7.
Assistant trainer Justin Fortune has no fears of any upsets at this stage of the young prospect’s career.
“Ben’s been training real hard and is in good shape,” Fortune said while waiting for Dunne before a workout at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles on Monday.
The Australian-born trainer, a former heavyweight fighter, has been in charge of Dunne’s preparation for the Trujillo bout in the absence of head trainer Freddy Roach, who is working with Mike Tyson for the controversial pug’s return against Clifford “The Black Rhino” Etienne on Feb. 22.
Fortune expects another commanding performance from his Irish charge against the wet-eared Trujillo, who will be making his professional debut.
According to matchmaker Ron Katz, Trujillo was a two-time Colorado Golden Gloves champion who left the amateur ranks with an impressive 60-4 record.
Fortune, who some Irish boxing fans may remember from the fourth-round TKO loss he suffered to Lennox Lewis in Dublin on July 2, 1995, said that he had been impressed by the quality sparring Dunne put in ahead of this fight.
Among his sparring partners were Israel Vazquez and Carlos Hernandez, who went on to lift the International Boxing Federation junior lightweight crown with a technical points decision over David Santos in Las Vegas last weekend.
“He’s getting better and better every day,” Fortune said.