FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA, PENN.(November 8, 2018)–Banner Promotions has announced the signing of two-time Olympian and undefeated light heavyweight Kennedy Katende to an exclusive promotional contract.<\/p>\n
Katende,\u00a0of Sweden, was born in Uganda\u00a0and competed in the 2008 and 2016 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
Katende has an unblemished professional record of 4-0 with 1 knockout.<\/p>\n
The 33 year-old began fighting at the age of 12 after his mother passed away.<\/p>\n
“We moved to Sweden, and it was hard for me.\u00a0 I started to gain weight, and my father made me run to get back in shape.\u00a0My older brother started boxing and I followed him to the gym.\u00a0My father was hard on me to lose the weight, and I started to box, just so I wouldn’t have him yell at me while running,” said Katende.<\/p>\n
Katende then went on to have a very successful amateur\u00a0career where he won approximately 175 of 200 bouts.<\/p>\n
Katende qualified for the 2008 Olympics for his birthplace of Uganda, but lost to current IBF Light Heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev.\u00a0Katende was the only fighter to go the distance with Beterbiev.\u00a0Katende also participated in the 2016 games.<\/p>\n
Katende fought in the World Series of Boxing where he had a record of 11-2.<\/p>\n
Katende turned professional on November 26, 2016 with a four-round unanimous decision over Tracey Johnson.\u00a0 Katende has wins over undefeated Lyubomyr Pinchuk (4-0) and his last bout where he defeated hard punching Luther Smith (10-2) on April 21st in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
“I signed with Banner Promotions, because I have heard good things\u00a0 Artie Pelullo called me, and that meant a lot to me.\u00a0I know Banner Promotions is a big promoter that has a lot of success with European boxers.\u00a0I know Artie has heard a lot about me, and I know that he can get me to a world title.<\/p>\n
“I have had tough fights.\u00a0My last fight I took on two days notice.\u00a0That shows that I am willing to fight anyone.”<\/p>\n
Katende, who has been fighting at cruiserweight, will campaign at light heavyweight.<\/p>\n
When describing his style, Katende says he is really fast\u00a0and has good reflexes. He\u00a0likes to box from both the orthodox and southpaw stances.<\/p>\n
The articulate Katende is studying to become a Physical Education\u00a0teacher in Sweden\u00a0and is a personal trainer.<\/p>\n
Katende has one daughter and raises three more children with his girlfriend in Sweden.<\/p>\n
Katende’s manager Pat Zagarino stated, “I view this as a great opportunity to manage a potential world champion.\u00a0 He will be a serious challenger to any of the existing world champions.\u00a0 He will not be a secret for very long.\u00a0 I am grateful for this unique opportunity with Banner Promotions.\u00a0Banner Promotions has had great success with foreign fighters getting them world title opportunities.”<\/p>\n
“We are excited to have Kennedy in the fold,” said Banner Promotions President, Artie Pelullo.\u00a0“He is a very good prospect with a terrific pedigree.\u00a0We look forward to getting him in the ring and have him in meaningful fights and eventually a world championship.”<\/p>\n
For regular updates<\/strong> on our fighters, events, and promotions, please like the\u00a0Banner Promotions Facebook Page<\/a>,\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0@BannerBoxing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PHILADELPHIA, PENN.(November 8, 2018)–Banner Promotions has announced the signing of two-time Olympian and undefeated light heavyweight Kennedy Katende to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[426],"class_list":["post-11334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-kennedy-katende"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11336,"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11334\/revisions\/11336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banner-promotions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}