A front page article of the Wall Street Journal features a Winston-Salem boxer Jonathan Haggler fighting for the World Boxing Council's Baltic heavyweight title, which covers Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and the eastern half of Scandinavia.  The fight's in New Jersey.  It's boxing so whaddayagonnadoaboutit?

Meanwhile, if Mr. Haggler is successful this weekend, Winston-Salem will boast one of the Baltic region's top heavyweights.

In 26 professional bouts stretching back to 2000, Mr. Haggler has fought only a handful of times outside North Carolina, once at a Radisson hotel in Morgantown, W. Va., another time in a nightclub in Nashville.

He says the opportunity to fight in New Zealand three years ago was his way to fast-track a career. In addition to the pay, he was told the WBO Oriental heavyweight title would vault him into the top 15 of the WBO rankings, and presumably more lucrative paydays…

It wasn't until Mr. Haggler saw the banner for the fight, announcing "WBC Baltic Heavyweight Championship," that he realized he'd be fighting for a foreign title. "That just made it that much more important for me," said Mr. Haggler.

The North Carolina heavyweight, who works with at-risk youth and their families, admits he doesn't know anything about the region other than a few facts about the Baltic Sea that were in a recent email. He admits, too, that fighters like himself are seen as stepping stones. Still, he thinks he can win the fight if he can pace himself.

If he does prevail, he'd like to fight another Pole—two-time world champ Tomasz Adamek, though a trip to the Baltics is unlikely. "I'd be the people's champ from a distance," he said.