Undefeated former top prospect and then lightweight titlist Omar Figueroa Jr is finally ending his two year lay off from the sport. He will be doing so up at welterweight against Robert Guerrero, a rapidly fading former two division titlist in a fight on Long Island broadcast by FOX. The card will be a triple header also featuring light heavyweights Marcus Browne and local fighter Sean Monaghan as well as an all Polish heavyweight bout.
Omar Figueroa (26-0-1, 18 KOs) was last seen in December of 2015 way up at junior middleweight struggling with a thought to be faded Antonio DeMarco. Before that he struggled with a thought to be faded Ricky Burns at junior welterweight. Figueroa was once a really exciting lightweight prospect, but he battled with his weight and never really did accomplish much besides being handed a soft belt without any real top wins.
Robert Guerrero (33-5-1, 18 KOs) will be listed as a four division titlist in the marketing for the fight, but his lightweight and welterweight belts were not full world titles. He is 2-4 in his last six and probably should be 1-5 given that the Aaron Martinez decision in 2015 was pretty generous. He hasn’t unquestionably won a fight since 2014. Most recently he lost to a literal taxi cab driver in David Peralta.
It is easy to look at this and dismiss it as a poor main event. As outlined above, it is. In terms of a fight, however, this should be highly entertaining. Both fighters are high volume action stars who are only ever in good fights.
In the co-feature, Sean Monaghan (28-0, 17 KOs), long viewed as a limited local NYC area attraction, finally steps up in a big away against former US Olympian Marcus Browne (19-0, 14 KOs). Browne is coming off his career best performance in a dominant six round stoppage of former title challenger Thomas Williams while Monaghan, though long a known name, has never really fought anyone of note.
In the opener, Polish heavyweight Artur Szpilka (20-2, 15 KOs) finally returns from his devastating KO loss to Deontay Wilder last January in a fight he was otherwise quite competitive in. Here he does so against fellow Polish fighter Adam Kownacki (15-0, 12 KOs), a largely unknown prospect making his debut in a ten round fight.
