Brandon Berry is psyched to attend a concert Saturday, and he’s even been invited on stage to perform.
But he’ll be without an instrument to play, and the only tune he knows is chin music.
Berry, the veteran West Forks boxer nicknamed “The Cannon,” will take part in one of five fights that will be interspersed within a music festival featuring the Dropkick Murphys from 2 to 11 p.m. at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford, New Hampshire.
Berry is scheduled to fight Carlos Galindo in a four-round welterweight bout at approximately 3:35 p.m., just after a 3 p.m. performance by The Rebel Collective, described as a New England based Irish-American pub rock/Celtic folk-punk band.
Those performances will be among five fights — including a battle for the IBA world junior middleweight title between champion Mark DeLuca and challenger Walter Wright — and eight musical acts that will be capped off by two other Irish-American rock bands, Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys.
“I think there’ll be a lot more music than fights, and from what I understand it will draw a lot of people,” Berry said.
The link between music and boxing is Dropkick Murphys leader Ken Casey, a big sports fan who in 2015 created Murphys Boxing, now one of the bigger boxing promotions in the Northeast.
“I’ve actually commentated at one of their shows before so I know them; not real well, but we’ve talked in passing,” Berry said. “I’m much closer with their matchmaker, Mark Vaz, and he offered me a spot on this show.
“I’ve always been interested in fighting for their promotion just because they do so well and are so well-known in New England, and have really good fighters who fight for them on a regular basis. It will be really good to get in that mix, and with so many shows that they put on in New England it would be nice to be able to count on getting a few fights a year with them,” Berry added.
The crowd should be larger than the typical New England boxing show as the facility holds up to 9,000 people as a concert venue. Combined with the popularity of the Dropkick Murphys in the region, Berry expects a large turnout and the atmosphere to be even more raucous than normal.
The work between the ropes is as important as ever for 30-year-old Berry. His professional career got off to a strong start as he won his first eight fights since injuring his left shoulder during a loss to Freddy Sanchez at the Portland Exposition Building in late 2014.
Three subsequent surgeries slowed his comeback bid, as did the death of best friend Joel Bishop in an automobile accident on U.S. Route 201 in northwestern Maine last fall.
Berry has fought twice since then, earning a draw with Eric Palmer in Portland last November and then winning an uninspired unanimous decision against the debuting Francisco Neto in late April on a show he promoted in Skowhegan.
“When my buddy Joel passed in October and then I took that fight in November I guess I felt like I was really motivated,” Berry said. “I guess I was, and then once that fight was over because that had been all I was focusing on I guess I dropped off again.
“I just couldn’t get any momentum going and mentally I was beating myself. It’s a big process to heal from that type of a blow in life.”
Berry (12-2-2, 7 KOs) said not only is he in better spirits now, but he’s also healthier than he’s been in recent times as he seeks to rekindle his boxing career before it’s too late.
“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “I’m 30; I’m finally sparring again on a regular basis for the first time in two years, and it feels like I’m starting from scratch.
“But I’ve dedicated 12 or 13 years to this and I can’t stop now when I only have a few years of this left, so I would say my determination and motivation is in a very good spot and growing.”
Berry is scheduled to follow up Saturday’s fight with a July 28 bout in Hampton, New Hampshire, that he hopes will be another tuneup before stepping up the caliber of his opposition in this comeback effort.
In the meantime, Berry is looking forward to performing in a show with one of the region’s iconic rock bands.
“It’s not a big fight as far as my opponent goes, though you never look past anybody,” he said. “It’s a stay-busy fight to try to get back to where I was, and it’s a great opportunity to fight in front of this type of a crowd and Murphys Boxing.”
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