By ERIC BENEVIDES

Sports writer

PAWTUCKET — After a quiet 2009, Peter Manfredo Jr. is looking to make some noise in 2010.
And Manfredo Jr. hopes to get the year off to a rousing start tonight when he fights Matt Vanda of St. Paul, Minn. for the NABF (North American Boxing Federation) middleweight title in a 10-round test at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
It will be Manfredo’s first fight in southern New England in 14 months, and ‘The Pride of Providence’ will step into the ring looking to improve his 33-6 (18 KOs) record and crack the top 10 in the WBC (World Boxing Council) rankings, where he is 13th.
Vanda comes into this fight with a 42-9 (22 KOs) record and victories in his last three fights of ’09. Before then, he had lost five of seven fights in a 15-month span, but Manfredo dismissed that stretch of defeats when he talked about Vanda before a recent workout at Manfredo’s Gym in Pawtucket.
“No one’s been really able to stop him or really give him a beating and he’s fought the best middleweights out there,” added the 29-year-old Manfredo. “If I could do that, it would be a confidence boost for me (at middleweight) and we’ll take it from there.”
The 31-year-old Vanda is two months removed from his last win, a close 10-round split decision victory over middleweight prospect Phil Williams (11-2, 10 KOs) at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minn. Vanda won by scores of 97-93, 96-65, and 94-97.
“He’s a tough opponent, but I feel my skills are better,” added Manfredo. “I can throw a better combination and I’m faster and smarter, but I want to do more than beat him. I want to stop him. I want to look impressive.”
The last time boxing fans got to see Manfredo Jr. in action in New England was Nov. 13, 2008 when he locked horns with Cameroon fighter and ‘The Contender III’ champ Sakio Bika for the International Boxing Organization (IBO) super middleweight title at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
But Manfredo’s second chance at a world championship also resulted in his second worst defeat of his career, as Bika overcame an early knockdown to score a third-round TKO over ‘The Pride of Providence’ and send the local crowd home disappointed.
“After losing to Bika, I kind of fell off the map,” remarked Manfredo. “No one talked about me any more, and people move on, because you’re only as good as your last fight in this game.”
That’s when Manfredo decided to return to the middleweight ranks for the first time since his stint on ‘The Contender I’ series from the summer of ’04 to the end of the next year. At 5-foot-9, Manfredo realized that he was at an disadvantage fighting opponents that were usually 6 feet or taller. 
The move resulted in a pair of victories last year, but Manfredo had to travel over 350 miles for each of them.
On April 18, Manfredo headed to Canada to face Montreal’s Walid Smichet in his backyard at the Casino Montreal and used a devastating left to notch a seventh-round knockout of Smichet that soon became a hit on youtube.com.
In his next fight on Nov. 5, it was off to the suburbs of Baltimore for a fight against Ronald Weaver. Manfredo pummeled him in the opening round, and moments later, was awarded a TKO when Weaver quit on the stool prior to the start of the second round.
“I had to rebuild,” said Manfredo, “and in order to come back, I had to take fights wherever I had to take them just to get back on the map a little bit.”
Two months after knocking out Smichet, Manfredo also signed an exclusive promotional contract with Las Vegas-based TKO Boxing Promotions, which is association with Mohegan Sun, is presenting tonight’s card.
“I’m going to do the best I can do and I just want to take things one fight at a time,” added Manfredo Jr. “I just want to win this fight and look good and see what opportunities open up for me.”
Manfredo, who owns a 26-1 (14 KOs) record fighting in New England, will surprisingly be making only his third appearance (and first since Dec. 2001) at Mohegan Sun, but the chance to box in front of his hometown fans again should make him feel right at home in Uncasville.
“I’m back home and it feels good,” admitted Manfredo. “People are excited again about coming to see me fight. They haven’t been back in over a year and I’m going to do my best for them.”
Tickets for tonight’s event are still on sale at $75, $45, and $30 and can be purchased at the Mohegan Sun box office and through Ticketmaster.
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Another local fighter will vie for a title belt next weekend when Providence heavyweight Jason ‘Big Six’ Estrada (16-2, 4 KOs) duels Tomasz Adamek (37-1, 27 KOs) of Zywiec, Poland for Adamek's IBF (International Boxing Federation) International title belt in a 12-round battle next Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Adamek, who is a former WBC light heavyweight and IBF cruiserweight champion, seized the IBF title last October with a fifth-round TKO of four-time world heavyweight title contender Andrew Golota in Poland.
“I really honestly think that Tomasz made a big, big mistake,” Estrada said in a press release. “Golota was a big heavyweight in his day, a big puncher, a big strong guy, but that is not the same Golota (that Tomasz fought). To me that’s not really a fight that I would take as a justification to fight me in the heavyweight division. Maybe he should have fought someone else.”
This will be Estrada’s first fight since his seventh-round TKO of New York native Zuri Lawrence on Labor Day weekend of last year in Syracuse, N.Y. Prior to that, he suffered a 10-round unanimous decision loss to undefeated Alexander Povetkin in Germany, losing by 92-98, 94-96, 93-97 scores.
This will be the first championship fight in Estrada’s five-year pro career, and the 2004 U.S. Olympian hopes to make a statement with a spectacular performance against Adamek.
“They made a big mistake offering me this fight and an even bigger mistake thinking he has faster hands than me,” said Estrada. “I’ve heard that they’ve brought in guys to work with who are big, but don’t have fast hands. That makes me laugh. I am bigger, stronger, faster, quicker and younger than him. I’m just a better all-around fighter. … He was a good light heavyweight and a good cruiserweight, but I’m a real heavyweight.”