Though this show lost its original main event of Anthony Peterson and Mickey Bey, it still has a top fighter in Dominican former bantamweight titleholder Juan Carlos Payano. Tomorrow night he will be in against Alexis Santiago in Las Vegas. The co-main event will also feature the return of once beaten former US Marine Jamel Herring in an important fight for his career going forward.
Unquestionably in my view, Juan Carlos Payano (18-1, 9 KOs) is a top four bantamweight. The only three that could possibly be ranked above him are Luis Nery, Shinsuke Yamanaka, and Zhanat Zhakiyanov. Though he does not currently have a belt, Payano’s resume is clearly better than that of titlists Ryan Burnett and Zolani Tete. With two virtually even fights against Rau’Shee Warren split fairly one a piece and a victory over Anselmo Moreno, Payano is well established as a true top fighter in the division.
It would be nice if Payano was in with one of those guys here, but he isn’t. Alexis Santiago (21-4-1, 8 KOs) of Arizona doesn’t figure to trouble for former titleholder much. Santiago, for example, is coming off a close loss with Jose Cateyano. Cateyano is a decent fighter, but he has lost dramatically and noncompetitively whenever he has stepped up to the world stage. Alexis Santiago lost to him and is now stepping up himself to Payano’s world stage position. This is not exactly a recipe for success.
In the co-main event, former moderately hyped PBC welterweight prospect Jamel Herring (16-1, 9 KOs) will have his second fight back following his bubble bursting beating from Denis Shafikov last July. At the time that result looked really bad, but with hindsight it was clearly too much, too soon for the marketable ex-Marine. Shafikov followed that night with a really good win over Richard Commey and then nearly took a belt off Robert Easter Jr, or should have nearly done that anyway had the judges turned in sane cards. Never a super prospect, asking Jamel Herring to take him on only fifteen fights in his career was not a great plan.
All that is just to say that it is too early to write Herring off completely. Here he is in against largely unknown Memphis fighter Ladarius Miller (13-1, 4 KOs) in what figures to be a routine win to help rebuild Herring’s career momentum. As both a former Marine and US Olympian, Herring has this All-American type of marketability that the PBC team will still want to try to cash in on. At 31, however, the clock is ticking and he cannot lose on this level.
The show will take place Sam’s Hotel in the fight capitol of the world, Las Vegas. It will air at 9 PM Eastern on FS1.
