The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@trobunemedia.net

TUREANO ‘Reno’ Johnson’s middleweight professional boxing career has taken on a new management team heading into his return to the ring.

Johnson, 31, has announced that he has left Gary Shaw Productions, headed by entertainment mogul Jay Z, and has joined the Golden Boy Promotions, headed by Oscar de la Hoya, the first Hispanic to own a national boxing promotional company.

Starting in 2002, the company is one of boxing’s most active and respected promoters, presenting shows in packed venues around the United States on networks such as HBO, Showtime, Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes.

“At this point in my career, it is important for me to stay focused on my goals, which are to fight, to provide for my family, to make my country proud but ultimately to do what I was born to do, which is to become a world champion,” Johnson said in a press release distributed by the company over the weekend.

With his change in promoter, Johnson has also decided to revamp his whole team, bringing in a new trainer and manager.

“With a new team, trainer (Tyrone Jones), manager (Garcia O Staley Sr of Titanium Sports & Entertainment) and promoter in Golden Boy, I would say I have made a golden decision,” Johnson said. “The legacy lives on.”

Johnson, who has represented the Bahamas at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China where he just fell short of getting into the medal round, will be preparing to return to the ring under his new management team on October 17 at Madison Square Gardens in New York when he takes on Eamonn ‘King Kane’ O’Kane in an International Boxing Federation’s world title belt eliminator.

The fight will be on the undercard of the main event middleweight showdown between American Gennady Golovkin (33-0 with 30 knockouts) and Canadian David Lemieux (34-2 with 31 knockouts).

O’Kane, 33, is 14-1-1. His last fight was a 12-round decision over Lewis Taylor at the Lavey Centre, Derry, Northern Ireland for the IBF Inter-Continental middleweight title. O’Kane was handed a draw on September 6, 2014 with Virgilijus Stapulionis in Northern Ireland. His only defeat came on December 8, 2012 to John Ryder at the Olympia in Kensington, London.

This will be O’Kane’s first appearance in a fight outside of the United Kingdom in his pro career that started at the age of 29 on June 4, 2011 when he stopped Dmitrij Kalinovskij in the first round.

O’Kane, a five-foot, 10-inch orthodox fighter, resides in Banagher, Co Offaly, Ireland.

Coming off a sixth round decision over Humberto Toledo in his last fight and first on home soil on December 5 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium, organised by Tommy Stubbs of Buttons Formal Wear, Johnson is currently sporting a 18-1 win-loss record. His only loss came on April 4, 2014 when he lost a 10-round decision to Curtis Stevens at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.

Johnson, who matches O’Kane in height and style of fighting, made his pro debut at the age of 26 on March 5, 2010 at the Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia with a first round TKO over Cleoney Fuqua.

Johnson, a native of Pinewood Gardens, currently fights out of Georgia where he resides with his wife Natania and daughter.

Johnson is currently ranked at No. 8 in the WBC, No. 12 in the WBA and No. 12 in the International Boxing Federation.