Former amateur stand-out Paul Kroll (7-0, ), a welterweight out of Philadelphia, PA, will return to the ring this weekend, on Saturday, October 3rd, 2020, on FS1, against Lucas Santamaria (11-1, 7KOs), as Kroll will get his first intriguing bout as a professional, and hopefully pole-vault his career to the next level.

With Kroll we have a lot to digest, so let’s start from the beginning and work to the present.

Kroll was an outstanding amateur as BoxRec.com credits him with a 123-17 amateur record, albeit Kroll in a BoxingVoice.com interview was quoted as saying his amateur career was 88-22, nonetheless Kroll accomplished a lot. In 2015, Kroll was the National Golden Gloves champion and parlayed his success at Nationals to winning the Olympic Trials that same year.

Kroll was unable to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic team but was a representative of that year’s Olympic class. Despite not being able to compete in the Olympics, Kroll seemed set to be a name in the sport, especially coming from a glorified boxing city such as Philly. Not to mention he was in one of the hottest division in the sport, welterweight.

Then tragedy happened.

According to an article written by PhillyVoice.com, Kroll was arrested that Saturday, August 24th, 2016, on the grounds of attempted murder. We won’t get into the details of the case, but you can easily information on other websites that spend time doing more investigative journalism. The story is heartbreaking and a sadly common one amongst communities with fewer resources that spawns systematic violence, drug abuse and societal depression. Kroll went from being an overnight Cinderella story of USA Boxing to a very cautionary tale of the perils of the streets changing one’s fortune in the blink of an eye.

Kroll hadn’t fired a weapon, but was charged nonetheless. Kroll put the situation behind him as best he could, but lingering PTSD, as well as a life-long friend serving a ten-year prison sentence based around the situation he faced, has to still weigh upon him to this day. Traumatic moments don’t just go away, they linger, fade and sadly remerge at inopportune times for most, while the greats like Philly’s own Bernard Hopkins, used his own trauma to fuel him to be a Hall-of-Famer. Now it is up to Kroll to see how his narrative unfolds.

Two years after the incident, Kroll turned professional in 2018, well after most of his Olympic class, on a Marshall Kaufman King’s Promotions, boxing card, Philly. The show was a smaller venue show, and not one that you’d expect an amateur stand-out to turn pro on. Despite being one of the best fighters in his Olympic year, personal tragedies had potential stopped him from having a major promoter guiding his career.

Kroll who is only 25-years-old has fought seven times in two years appearing on both Top Rank and PBC undercards, but this Saturday is one of the most marquee bout of his life as he is fighting on a Premier Boxing Champions card against Lucas Lucas Santamaria, a man who just upset a very good fighter in Mykal Fox, in the co-main event, a spot he has not filled on a nationally televised card, thus far.

Santamaria is a pressure fighter, who will not be intimidated by Kroll’s pedigree and if anything might harbor disdain for such accolades. As some pressure fighters, view amateur boxing as nothing compared to the professional ranks as the gloves are smaller and the headgear is off. It is a battle of wills so to speak and Santamaria is coming off beating a solid boxing in his last fight, and if he does it again, Santamaria becomes an emerging contender in the division.

In short, this is a fight Kroll will need to win, to potentially get more opportunities with a major fighter organizer in PBC, as well as to continue his road to redemption as Kroll has a story that, sadly a lot of men, especially black men, can relate to in America.

The telecast will begin this Saturday, October 3rd, from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and will feature top welterweight prospect Paul Kroll squaring off against rising prospect Luke Santamaria in the 10-round co-main event. The main event is  Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo will take on hard-hitting Rigoberto Hermosillo in the 10-round main event