Boxing’s been good to James Dixon.

For nearly 40 years, Dixon has boxed, coached and now is trying his hand as a promoter. The Vicksburg native, who has lived in South Africa and now calls Chicago home, is bringing a first class boxing card to the Vicksburg Convention Center Saturday night.

Dixon’s Showdown Boxing Productions is producing Saturday’s card called “Gloves Up, Guns Down” Showdown at the VCC.

Through his Chicago connections, Dixon has been able to bring in a pair of world class fighters in four-time women’s world middleweight champion Leatitia Robinson and rising middleweight contender Louis “Knock” Turner.

Dixon said the purpose of bringing this kind of card to Vicksburg is part of a plan to bring boxing back to the River City.

“Vicksburg is my home and I want to bring boxing back to my hometown. I want to get amateur boxing started back here, but to start, I want to bring a good pro show,” Dixon said.

“I’ve got Tish (Robinson) a four-time world champion, who I’ve known since she was 10 years old and I’ve known Louis since he started out in Gold Gloves. Both of them agreed to take these fights and do it in Vicksburg. It’ll be a co-main event. We’re going to have a beautiful show,” Dixon said.

For Robinson, this will be her first fight since defending her WIBA and WIBF world title belts against Yvonne Reis in Dec. 2006 in Nariobi, Kenya. She’s been out over two years because of a shoulder injury which required surgery. Another factor was that the most recognizable name in the women’s boxing — Laila Ali — could not agree to financial terms in what could’ve been the biggest fight in women’s boxing history.

Dixon says, however, that Ali wants no part of Robinson.

“Laila Ali doesn’t want to fight Tish,” Dixon said.

Instead of an easy warmup bout, Robinson, instead, is taking on Ijeoma Egubunine, who is  currently ranked No. 1 contender in the world by the WBC (World Boxing Council) and WIBF (Women’s International Boxing Federation) and No. 2 in the WIBA. Natascha Ragosino of Kazakstan, is the current world champion in the WBC, WIBA and WIBF.

 Robinson (15-0, 9 KO) owned the WIBA and WIBF belts for two years, making three defenses, before stepping away to fix her shoulder.

“I don’t care who she is. I’m just looking to work my way right through her. I may have been out two years, and she’s gotten a couple of good wins over the last year, but none of that matters to me. She’s got to deal with me,” Robinson said.

Egubunine (15-2, six KO), a Nigerian, defeated former world champ Lisa Ested in August. She currently trains in Marietta, Ga.

Turner, another Chicago fighter, comes out of the Don King stable. In August of 2008, he lost a controversial decision to Anthony Greenidge for the North American Boxing Council Middleweight championship in Atlanta. It was his second straight loss after reeling off 12 straight wins in impressive fashion.

The winning streak landed him a match against Angel Hernandez, a seasoned pro who has fought the likes of Winky Wright. He lost in a decision to Hernandez and then tried to win his first belt against Greenidge.

“I had a great battle against Angel Hernandez. That was the biggest fight of my career and I just came off on the short end of the stick. I had an A-minus fight, but I needed A-plus,” Turner said.

*

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com.