On March 7, Boxing Insider Promotions returns to the Tropicana Showroom for its seventh fight card in less than two years, and the roster reads like a who’s-who of South Jersey’s best young talent. It’s an evening that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago, when the venue hadn’t hosted a professional fight in seven years.
‘I want to bring a good fight to my city’
Justin “Mr. Atlantic City” Figueroa headlines again on March 7, which is becoming a habit. The 26-year-old Holy Spirit grad has fought five times at the Tropicana — starting with a six-round win over Antoni Armas on the venue’s first card, followed by a second-round knockout of Argentina’s Mario Gaston Rios, and then last November’s fourth-round stoppage of Perdomo to capture the Junior NABF Super Welterweight Championship. He’s now 16-0 with 12 knockouts.
Figueroa didn’t take a straight path to the ring. A standout running back and wrestler at Holy Spirit, he dreamed of playing college football. “I just didn’t have the grades,” he said. “My GPA didn’t add up. I wasn’t focused in high school.” After a semester at Rowan University, he started hitting the heavy bag at the Atlantic City PAL to lose weight from his football days — he’d been walking around at 215 pounds. He dropped to 154 and realized boxing was what he wanted to do.
These days, it’s all he does. He left his job on the Atlantic City Beach Patrol to train full-time. “I love what I do, I love training, I love boxing, I love being competitive,” Figueroa has said. “Hopefully I can take it to world champion status.”
‘Every heavyweight has to fear getting in the ring with me’
If Figueroa is the headliner, Josh “The Hammer” Popper might be the most intriguing fighter on the card. The 32-year-old Egg Harbor Township native is another Holy Spirit product — a defensive end on the Spartans’ undefeated 2010 state championship team alongside future NFL quarterback Joe Callahan. Popper went on to play football at Rowan University and earned tryouts with the Arizona Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts.
When the NFL didn’t work out, he didn’t slow down. He started boxing, and the athletic gifts that made him a Division III standout translated immediately. Popper turned pro in 2024, is 5-0 with 3 knockouts, and fights with a fluidity that doesn’t match his size.
“I like to consider myself a very smooth boxer,” Popper told 973 ESPN. “I move very fluid, I box as if I was a middleweight, but obviously I’m a heavyweight. So that’s something that every heavyweight has to fear getting in the ring with me — being able to match my speed, my IQ, my athleticism, my footwork.”
Popper made his Atlantic City debut on the November card, picking up a victory in front of a hometown crowd that had been waiting to see him fight live. He returns March 7 looking to push his record to 6-0. He’s also the founder of Bredwinners Boxing, building a brand that he hopes will outlast his fighting career.
‘Boxing probably saved my life’
For Julio “Julez” Sanchez III, fighting is a family inheritance. His great-grandfather, Lincoln Green, was a boxing manager. His father, Julio Sanchez Jr., is a decorated former welterweight who went on to serve in the army and retire as a Pleasantville firefighter. Now he trains his son at the Pleasantville Recreation Center.
The younger Sanchez was a point guard at Pleasantville High School and played college basketball in California before coming home and losing his way. His best friend, Byron Jones, was shot and killed at 18. “It hit me extremely hard,” Sanchez has said. “We grew up together, played junior football for the Pleasantville Jokers together.” He drifted into trouble before finding his way to the gym. “Boxing probably saved my life in a way.”
His father wasn’t easy to convince. “He’s always wanted to box and I was always against it,” Sanchez Jr. has said. “I told him if he really wanted to do this, he had to be totally committed to it, and he’s done that. I’m very proud of him.” Julez made his pro debut at the Tropicana in March 2025 and is now 3-1 with 2 KOs, fighting in the super lightweight division.
Like father, like son
John “Bodyshot” Leonardo (12-1-1, 6 KOs) is another fighter whose corner man is also his father. The 24-year-old super bantamweight from Manalapan Township is trained by Donald Leonardo and has been fighting professionally since 2021. He holds the ABF USA championship, is riding a five-fight winning streak, and brings one of the deepest résumés on the March 7 card. He faces Millville’s Edgar Cortes in an all-Jersey matchup.
‘From the nice, passive everyday person to ready to legally kill someone in a ring’
Lia “Rogue” Lewandowski didn’t grow up planning to become a professional fighter. The Berlin, New Jersey native studied political science at Drexel University and was aiming for a career in national security. Then COVID shut down those opportunities, and she walked into a boxing gym. By 2022, she was competing. By 2024, she was a top-five nationally ranked amateur at 114 pounds.
Lewandowski made her Tropicana debut on the November card, beating Chantel Sumral to improve to 3-0. The crowd took to her immediately. She’ll tell you she’s never been in a street fight, never been the confrontational type — but when the bell rings, something changes. “From the nice, passive everyday person to ready to legally kill someone in a ring,” she’s said. On March 7, she faces Indeya Rodriguez.
Her ambitions aren’t small. “The endgame is to be number one in the world,” Lewandowski has said. For now, she trains at Berlin’s Kennel Fighting Fitness Club, inspires young female athletes at local schools, and keeps building a following that’s growing with every fight.
The bigger picture
What connects all of these fighters — besides geography — is that they’re building their careers in front of people who actually know them. Figueroa’s fans went to Holy Spirit with him. Sanchez’s father is in his corner, literally. Popper played football against kids in the crowd. That’s what makes a Friday night at the Tropicana feel different from a fight card in some convention center three states away.
The March 7 card also features international talent — Pakistan’s Jahanzeb Rizwan and Ireland’s Jim Torney, a 6’9” heavyweight — rounding out an evening that mixes local pride with global flavor. Boxing Insider Promotions, led by Margate’s Larry Goldberg, a two-time New York State Boxing Hall of Fame Promoter of the Year, has also invested in the community through its annual Battle of the Beach amateur showcase with the Atlantic City PAL, twice putting local kids on real fight cards.
But on March 7, the story is the fighters. Five South Jersey kids — a lifeguard, a football player, a basketball player, a softball player, and a boxer’s son — who all found their way to the same ring in the same city. Doors open at 6 p.m. at the Tropicana Showroom. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster.
