Top Rank has won the day with the WBC as their new titleholder Jose Ramirez will not have to defend first against interim titleholder Regis Prograis. Instead, the two will be on separate Top Rank on ESPN shows in July to help build momentum for the fight in the future. We also have the return of Luis Nery and a Golden Boy on ESPN that has been announced as well.
- Disgraced former bantamweight king Luis Nery (26-0, 22 KOs) has his next fight set up in Mexico against Jetro Pabustan (29-5-6, 9 KOs). The 23 year old first failed a drug test following his coronation of a win over longtime divisional king Shinsuke Yamanaka. When they rematched as a result, Nery then missed weight. He clearly needs to move up to super bantamweight, but no weight limit has listed for this stay busy fight as of yet.
- Golden Boy on ESPN returns on June 16th with an moderately interesting main event. Recent Filipino lightweight title challenger Mercito Gesta (31-2-2, 17 KOs) takes on 23 year old Mexican prospect Roberto Manzanarez (35-1, 28 KOs) in the headline bout. Gesta is a good fighter, but not one who can win at the world level. Manzanarez is an under the radar prospect thanks to his Mexican location and loss, but he is effectively undefeated thanks to having rematched and stopped the one man who beat him.
- Jose Ramirez (22-0, 16 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBC junior welterweight title against Massachusetts fringe contender Danny O’Connor (31-3, 13 KOs) on July 7th. This is the increasingly traditionally victory lap style first defense as Danny O’Connor stands absolutely no chance here. No undercard fights have been announced as of yet besides a couple prospects without opponents.
- As evidenced by the above fight, Regis Prograis (21-0, 18 KOs) will not be “unifying” his interim WBC junior welterweight against full titleholder Jose Ramirez yet as Top Rank seems to have gotten their way with the sanctioning body. Instead, he’ll main event a Top Rank on ESPN show as a Lou DiBella fighter to help build the match in the future. His opponent will be little known Argentinian Juan Jose Velasco (20-0, 12 KOs) on July 14th, one week after Ramirez’s defense. One of my favorite prospects in Teofimo Lopez (9-0, 8 KOs) will take a minor step up against once beaten Brazilian William Silva (25-1, 14 KOs) in the co-main event.
