BoxRec

Press Release

A 10-round heavyweight main event has been added to Salita Promotions’ special Memorial Day weekend-kickoff Detroit Brawl event, as WBC #11-rated heavyweight Otto Wallin (23-1, 14 KOs) of Sweden will face Detroit’s own Rydell Booker (26-5-1, 13 KOs) on Thursday, May 26, in the Lincoln Ballroom of the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, Michigan.

An athletic southpaw heavyweight who does everything well, Wallin hails from Sundsvall, Sweden. The 31-year-old Wallin made the world stage and captured headlines in 2019 when he waged a thrilling war with linear world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and came extremely close to scoring a monumental stoppage upset. Then unknown and a 10-1 underdog, Wallin took the fight to Fury early and cut the superstar Englishman for 47 stitches with a surprise left in the third round. What followed was a nail-biting back-and-forth war of attrition that Fury eventually pulled out via close, controversial unanimous decision.

Wallin now lives and trains in New York under the tutelage of popular former two-division champion Joey Gamache at Mendez Boxing in Manhattan. He captured the EBU European Union Heavyweight Title with a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Adrian Granat in April 2018, and has also held the WBA Continental Heavyweight Championship. Wallin was last seen in February of this year, scoring a unanimous decision over Polish veteran Kamil Sokolowski

“Training is going really well,” said Wallin during a break in preparations. “I’ve been getting a lot of work in over the last few months. I saw Booker when he fought Franklin and I know that he’s an experienced and skilled boxer. He’s not someone I will underestimate, but this is a fight I need to win. I appreciate my promoter, Salita Promotions, keeping me active. This is the first time I fight twice in a year since 2019. I’m looking to put on a good performance.”

Inactive for over a decade, in 2018, Rydell Booker won three comeback bouts before losing a televised close 10-round decision to undefeated heavyweight Jermaine Franklin. As an amateur, Booker was the former number one ranked heavyweight in the United States and won the Michigan State and Regional championships every year from 1992 through 2000 and his first national title in 1999.

A capable boxer with excellent counterpunching skills, Booker fought all-time-great James Toney for the IBA World and WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight Championships and lost a 12-round decision in 2004.

All of the Detroit slugger’s losses have come to former champions or undefeated top contenders. An upset victory by the still capable Booker over Wallin would reignite the Detroiter’s once promising career.

“He’s a southpaw that boxes well,” said Booker of Wallin. “Everybody thinks they know how to fight a southpaw, but I fight them totally differently. I’ve been fighting them for years. I’m sparring with lefties every day and training is going well. It would mean a lot to beat Wallin. He’s rated in the world and it would let everybody know Rydell Booker is still here.”

Booker also says his trainer, former female fighter Kara Ro, is making sure he shows up in great shape for the battle. “Kara is getting on my nerves,” he admitted jokingly. “Not in a bad way. She’s a workhorse and it’s good because she’s always pushing.”

“I’m excited to add a heavyweight matchup featuring one of the best heavyweight fighters in the world, Otto Wallin, against battle-tested Detroiter Rydell Booker,” said event promoter Dmitriy Salita. “This fight card is packed with world-class talent and I’m honored for it to take place in Detroit, the city of boxing legends.”

and the crowd goes wild for this great fight

wtf is with this rydell booker obsession dudes are getting pulev, hrgovic, now wallin. i mean ffs even the press release is trying to hype a loss 18 years ago to james toney, that's how much they be reaching

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑03 May 2022, 13:57 and the crowd goes wild for this great fight

wtf is with this rydell booker obsession dudes are getting pulev, hrgovic, now wallin. i mean ffs even the press release is trying to hype a loss 18 years ago to james toney, that's how much they be reaching

Fair enuf, if it was a win over Toney 18 years ago. But a loss. Haha

He’s no Danny Williams for sure.

Salita usually has a tv deal with Showtime.

Press release doesn’t show Showtime does it?

Damn lets just raid the retirement homes to find opponents now.
This is a joke of a fight

Boxrec would have him as Wallin's 5th best win. What depth to his record.

fornicating hell Otto is striving for greatness. Edges soko in an 8 rounder and now he is going after p4p calliber Booker. If he keeps stacking up names like this he will be ready for Tom Little soon.

I wake up everyday wondering when I will get the chance to see Rydell Booker fight again. Dreams do come true.

Too bad he didn’t get that win over Whyte first. This fight sucks.

Oh my, what for?

Wallin taking backward steps.

No need for this.

He’s WBC #11, surely to move up, he must fight a fellow top 10 ranked WBC boxer. Or even top 15.

Can’t imagine Booker is top 15 with WBC.

in a world where things worked out right, he'd step in to fight big bang zhang

The 41-year-old Rydell Booker has only won one fight within the last 47 months, against an appalling journeyman opponent that hasn’t emerged victorious in any of his bouts staged within the last eleven years.

According to BoxRec, Arthur Williams and Uriah Grant are the best victories on Booker’s resume, with those wins achieved almost twenty years ago (in 2003).

Arthur Williams and Uriah Grant both retired more than a decade ago after failing to win a combined total of 39 bouts.

I honestly don’t know the reason why this hideously grotesque bout has been sanctioned by the authorities, because it’s one of the most repulsively obscene mismatches I can personally recall in recent memory.

Wallin got surprisingly good exposure as a talking head during the Fury-Whyte build up, and not long ago he was supposed to be fighting Whyte. This is horribly cynical matchmaking.

I doubt any of us will even watch this, bored, as something on Youtube, let alone stream it.

Whos sanctioning this? worst thing is otto cant punch, so it could be a sustained beating.

hopefully booker flings himself on the ground in the first 20 seconds and picks up his cash. fornicate promoters willing to put on this crap.

The 31-year-old Wallin made the world stage and captured headlines in 2019 when he waged a thrilling war with linear world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and came extremely close to scoring a monumental stoppage upset. Then unknown and a 10-1 underdog, Wallin took the fight to Fury early and cut the superstar Englishman for 47 stitches with a surprise left in the third round. What followed was a nail-biting back-and-forth war of attrition that Fury eventually pulled out via close, controversial unanimous decision.

What an absolute joke in the press release.

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑04 May 2022, 08:49

The 31-year-old Wallin made the world stage and captured headlines in 2019 when he waged a thrilling war with linear world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and came extremely close to scoring a monumental stoppage upset. Then unknown and a 10-1 underdog, Wallin took the fight to Fury early and cut the superstar Englishman for 47 stitches with a surprise left in the third round. What followed was a nail-biting back-and-forth war of attrition that Fury eventually pulled out via close, controversial unanimous decision.

What an absolute joke in the press release.

Oh it is a big joke. No one could call that fight controversial.
Wallin had one big round and he put up a little bit of offense and didn't look to shabby against Fury. But not a close fight.
Wallin will make money off of that one round for the rest of his career. And sadly that will probably be the highlight of his entire career

tiny_acres wrote: ↑04 May 2022, 10:54

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑04 May 2022, 08:49

The 31-year-old Wallin made the world stage and captured headlines in 2019 when he waged a thrilling war with linear world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and came extremely close to scoring a monumental stoppage upset. Then unknown and a 10-1 underdog, Wallin took the fight to Fury early and cut the superstar Englishman for 47 stitches with a surprise left in the third round. What followed was a nail-biting back-and-forth war of attrition that Fury eventually pulled out via close, controversial unanimous decision.

What an absolute joke in the press release.

Oh it is a big joke. No one could call that fight controversial.
Wallin had one big round and he put up a little bit of offense and didn't look to shabby against Fury. But not a close fight.
Wallin will make money off of that one round for the rest of his career. And sadly that will probably be the highlight of his entire career

The controversy was the cut being allowed to continue. Fair controversy, it was absolutely a-side privlage letting that go. No controversy in the decision.

ya fury won clearly, but it's also not right to say that basically it was just the cut (which was way more grusome than most that stop fights) and that's all the problems fury had. he lost 3-4 rounds and was also hurt in round 12. wallin did well in that fight for sure

but this fight is a massive joke. tbf to him he was supposed to be fighting whyte in the uk, and he fought fury, so i think he's fully willing to fight good opponents, but this is dumpy here. after ffighting vs soko deep on an undercard he needed something to get his momentum again, this aint it

Fight Week!

Salita used to have his cards on Showtime..

Wonder what happened with that.

Otto Wallin vs. Rydell Booker fight card

+ Otto Wallin vs. Rydell Booker; Heavyweight
+ Shohjahon Ergashev vs. Luis Alberto Veron; Super lightweight
+ Marlon Harrington vs. Azael Cosio; Super welterweight
+ Nikolai Buzolin vs. TBC; Super featherweight
+ Joseph Gerome Hicks Jr. vs. Bruno Leonardo Romay; middleweight
+ Ferris Dixon Jr. vs. TBC; Lightweight
+ Da'Vell Smith vs. TBC; Middleweight
+ Husam Al Mashhadi vs. Milton Banks; Super welterweight

I realise I’m going to end up repeating myself, but the Wallin-Booker fight is one of the most hideously grotesque repulsively obscene mismatches I can personally recall in recent memory.

I don’t know how to accurately articulate how much I truly dislike this matchup, because it's just so unacceptably bad!

Enlightened-One wrote: ↑23 May 2022, 10:05 I realise I’m going to end up repeating myself, but the Wallin-Booker fight is one of the most hideously grotesque repulsively obscene mismatches I can personally recall in recent memory.

I don’t know how to accurately articulate how much I truly dislike this matchup, because it's just so unacceptably bad!

Yeh, like he waiting for a world title shot. He's not a mandatory is he.

The Breazeale fight was good, good win as well..

Since that though, it's been shocking