By Ryan Burton

BoxingScene.com recently caught up with Stanyslav Skorokhod (8-0) who faces Michael Moore (13-0) tonight in the opening round of the 2015 Boxcino tournament that is televised by ESPN. This year's tournaments feature fighters in the super welterweight and heavyweight divisions.

Willie Monroe and Petr Petrov, who won last year's middleweight and lightweight tournaments, gained a lot of exposure from their victories and Skorokhod hopes to experience the same result. 

"This is a great opportunity for me," said Skorokhod. "I know that I am stepping up to another level, but I wanted to take the chance and test myself."

The highly touted amateur made his U.S. debut last October and is looking to join the recent wave of Eastern Europeans who have experienced success in the United States. 

"I love fighting in America. The fans here are great and really know how to support a boxer in the ring no matter how he is doing and where he is from.

"I think we have had a lot of success because we train very hard and we have a good sports system in our countries as far as trainers and gyms," Skorokhod told BoxingScene.com.

The 25-year-old Ukrainian is managed by Vadim Kornilov who's stable of fighters includes former champion Ruslan Provodnikov, top super lightweight contender Viktor Postol, and several others.

Kornilov admits that having Skorokhod participate in the tournament against more experienced fighters is a risk, but he is very confident in his fighter ability.  He believes that win or lose it will be a good experience for him.

"I started working with this kid before we gave him his U.S. debut fight in California last year," said Kornilov. " He definitely has some power but needs more experience to compete at the top level.  The tournament opportunity came around and both Elite Boxing Promotions (who promotes him in the Ukraine) and I talked and made an offer to him to be a part of this even though we all knew it was a risk.

"He agreed to it without hesitation and I hope that he exceeds our expectations. Participating in this tournament and the guys he will face in it, is a big opportunity for Stanyslav to prove himself and hopefully gain confidence and experience."

Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com . You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter