LORAIN — Mayor Tony Krasienko and Mike Kennedy, owner of Kennedy’s Broadway Billiards, will come to blows on June 20.
The pair will face off in a boxing ring during a fundraiser for the Puerto Rican Cultural Committee at the former Lorain Catholic High School, now known as the Spartan Building.
Krasienko, 38, said he’s in sort of a lose-lose situation no matter how he fares in the three one-minute rounds.
If he wins, he said, he’s beating up on an old guy — Kennedy is 59 — and if he loses, he got beat up by the old guy.
But Krasienko isn’t laying odds either way.
“I’ve probably got the height, weight and reach on him, but I suspect he’s got the experience,” the 225-pound mayor said.
Kennedy, who has dropped from 230 pounds to 205 pounds since he started learning to box in January, said he plans to be down to a fighting weight of 199 pounds by the time the bout rolls around.
“Life is too short to sit around and watch TV. You’ve got to be doing something,” he said.
But Kennedy said he isn’t taking odds on whether the mayor will beat him.
“I’m going to do my best, he’s going to do his best,” he said.
The real winner, he said, will be the Puerto Rican Cultural Committee, which is being featured at this year’s International Festival.
The price of tickets for the event, which will run 5 to 10 p.m., will be $40 for ringside seats that include a meal, and $15 for general admission.
There will be about 12 fights on the card that night, including the featured bout between Wilken Santiago, of Lorain, and a fighter from Chicago. It will be Santiago’s last amateur fight before he turns pro, Kennedy said.
Krasienko said tickets will be available from the Cultural Committee and at Kennedy’s, and he also plans to get a few to sell out of his office at City Hall.
He said he hopes no one leaves the ring with permanent injuries or hard feelings.
“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “We’re not going in there to kick the snot out of each other.”
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.
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