A solid undercard has been put togther beneath Friday’s main event featuring a defense by IBF featherweight titleholder Billy Dib against Evgeny Gradovich at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Conn.

Making the third defense of his belt, the 27-year-old Dib (35-1, 21 knockouts) fights under rapper-turned-boxing-promoter Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s SMS Promotions and will be in his first fight in America since his lone professional defeat to Steven Luevano in 2008.

Gradovich (15-0, 8 KOs), who is 26, is coming off December’s seventh-round knockout victory over Willie Villanueva.

In the co-feature, junior middleweight Willie “The Great” Nelson (19-1-1, 11 KOs), of Cleveland, takes on Michael “El Magnifico” Medina (26-3-2, 19 KOs), of Los Angeles.

Also part of the show are Ryan “Polish Prince” Kielczweski (15-0, 3 KOs), of Quincy, Mass, opposite Houston’s Gil “La Metrealleta” Garcia (5-3-1, 1 KO), and New Haven, Conn., junior featherweight Luis “KO King” Rosa Jr. (12-0, 6 KOs) against New York City’s Jhovany Collado (4-5-2, 1 KO).

Welterweight Charlie Ota (21-1, 15 KOs), a Harlem native fighting out of Japan, will meet slugger Brandon “The Business” Baue (12-9, 10 KOs), of Troy, Mo.

In addition, junior featherweight female boxer Shelly “Shelito’s Way” Vincent (7-0), who is trained by Peter Manfredo Sr. in Rhode Island, will meet Mikayla Nebel (0-3).

Photo by Ed Mulholland, Fightwireimages.com

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]