This weekend, one Butler boxer will have a successful professional career celebrated.

Next weekend, another Butler boxer will be starting a professional career of his own.

They have relatively similar backgrounds.

Brian Minto was 42-11 with 27 KO’s a a pro boxer, despite not turning pro until age 27. He is being inducted into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame this weekend.

Minto did not have many amateur fights as a Butler Cubs fighter before turning pro. Neither has Butler Cubs boxer Donovan Malovich, who was 22-5 in the amateur ranks.

Malovich, 18, will make his pro boxing debut next Saturday on a fight card at the Family Sports Center. While much younger than Minto when the latter turned pro, Malovich hopes to make a similar imprint as a pro.

Like Minto, Malovich got in a number of fights as a youth and wound up joining the Cubs boxing program as a means of channeling that aggression in a positive manner.

Like Minto, Malovich has been a standout athlete at Butler High School in another sport. Minto was the Defensive Player of the Year for the Golden Tornado as a linebacker in football.

Malovich won 23 matches on the wrestling mat for the Tornado as a sophomore.

Now he’s getting rid of the head-gear and boxing “for real” in front of his hometown.

How this fight will go is anybody’s guess. Malovich is taking on a guy by the name of William Davis, who is coming in from Missouri for this fight. Neither guy knows a thing about the other.

That’s how the boxing game is when you start out as a pro. You have four rounds to display your skills while facing a guy looking to do the same thing. There’s not much tape or background information available on boxers when they first leave the amateur ranks.

What may help Malovich is he won’t be alone. Fellow Cubs boxer Bobby Osterreider of Gibsonia is also making his pro debut. Ironically, he is 27 — the same age of Minto when he turned pro.

Ryan Covert is 38 and will be competing in his second — and final — pro bout. His other fight was nine years ago at Pullman Park.

Covert owns a couple of restaurants and opted not to pursue a pro fight career years ago. He’s stepping back into the ring next weekend as a show of support for his two Butler Cubs teammates.

These fighters form a bond with each other in that gym. They encourage and support each other. They’re in the gym together quite often, sometimes five days a week.

Boxing gives them structure, discipline, goals and competition.

It takes guts to turn pro in this sport. It’s an adjustment. It’s a journey. It’s putting yourself out there, one on one, in front of a raucous crowd.

Malovich has done this in wrestling. He has a boxing model to follow in Minto.

Let the journey begin.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle