Golden Boy on ESPN continues to produce a high frequency of cards as a June 17th date was announced today. The main event will feature junior welterweight fringe contenders Pablo Cesar Cano and Fidel Maldanado Jr fighting to stay at least somewhat near the top of the division. This will be the sixth Golden Boy on ESPN event in the three months since the series began.
This card keep Golden Boy on pace to fulfill their contract with ESPN that stipulates 18 events this year. They are also signed on for 24 events in 2018 and ESPN has the right to renew the series for another 24 events in 2019 if it deems the show successful. So often in the fight business promoter specific television deals have fallen significantly short of the announced card total. It is nice to see Golden Boy delivering here.
As for this show in particular, this is a good fight. Neither of these guys are top ten fighters, but they are both good pros with fan friendly styles. Mexico’s Pablo Cesar Cano (30-5-1, 21 KOs) is 0-2 in world title shots, first being stopped by Erik Morales during El Terrible’s slightly underrated late career run at junior welterweight. A few fights later he beat Paulie Malignaggi for his welterweight belt, but the judges didn’t give it to Cano. Next Cano lost to a 41 year old Shane Mosley in what will probably be remembered as Shane Mosley’s last decent performance against real competition.
Following the Mosley loss, Cano picked up a pretty good win over Ashley Theopane before his career started really dipping a bit. The first set back was a cut stoppage loss to Fernando Angulo which was the first time Cano lost to someone who had never been an elite fighter. A few fighters later he dropped a decision Alan Sanchez, another fighter again below the level of even the fading versions of Morales, Malignaggi, and Mosley. Cano rebounded well, however, in a good win last November against the always tricky Mauricio Herrera.
Fidel Maldanado Jr (23-3-1, 19 KOs) is someone closer to a 41 year old Mosley than an Alan Sanchez. He fought a fun war with Amir Imam in which both fighters hit the deck before Maldanado was stopped. He dropped a split decision to Michael Perez and fought to a split draw with Art Hovhannisyan. Despite being competitive in his three losses against pretty good fighters, Maldanado doesn’t actually have any wins of even marginal quality. Cano would be the best scalp on his resume to date.
In the co-feature 21 year old Golden Boy super flyweight prospect Joshua Franco (10-0, 5 KOs) fights Oscar Mojica (10-2, 1 KO) for youth title in a matchup of Texans
