Boxing his way to the top

Freeporter Patrick Day hopes to join ranks of the world’s best

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Freeporter Patrick Day, 26, is the World Boxing Council Continental Americas super-welterweight champion. On Feb. 2 he will face Russian Ismail Iliev for the International Boxing  Federation Continental junior middleweight title in Frisco, Texas.
Freeporter Patrick Day, 26, is the World Boxing Council Continental Americas super-welterweight champion. On Feb. 2 he will face Russian Ismail Iliev for the International Boxing  Federation Continental junior middleweight title in Frisco, Texas.
Courtesy Freeport PAL

Freeport boxer Patrick Day, 26, will fight at the Ford Center, the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility, in Frisco, Texas, on Feb. 2 at 7 p.m.
The match will be available for viewing on the ESPN+ app. Day will fight on the Eleider Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev rematch undercard. The match will switch to ESPN at 10 p.m.
Day will face Ismail Iliev, 25, of Russia, for the International Boxing Federation Continental Championship in the junior middleweight class. Iliev is ranked 12th in the World Boxing Council, with an 11-0-1 record.
Day, meanwhile, is ranked 18th, at 16-2-1 record, with six knockouts.
“We’re not taking him lightly,” Joe Higgins, Day’s manager and trainer, said of Iliev. “He’s a tough guy.”

The fight, Higgins said, could catapult Day into the top 10 of the IBF and the WBC.
“I’ve just been trying to get on the world rankings and continue to a title shot,” Day said on Jan. 25 after a morning of rigorous training.
Day successfully defended his WBC Continental Americas super-welterweight title against Kyrone Davis, of Delaware, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn last March. In October he faced Elvin Ayala, from New Haven, Conn., at Madison Square Garden, and won.
The goal, according to Day, is to reach the top 15 in the world, and from there, the top 10 and then the top three.
If Day wins the Frisco fight, he will be eligible for a world title fight. “All of these regional titles are a good springboard,” he said. “It’s good to get the ranking and the attention of the public.”
Higgins said that the boxing world has noticed Day, and many insiders believe he is world championship material. If and when he makes the top 10, “It’s going to be about those champions giving him a shot” to fight them, Higgins said. “Patrick’s not afraid of any of them.”