Premier Boxing Champions returns with a three hour, four fight Memorial Weekend card on Fox Sports 1 tomorrow night. Once red hot junior welterweight prospect Eddie Ramirez returns from his shocking first defeat in tough against Argenis Mendez in the in the main event while rising featherweight prospect “King Tug” also gets a tough assignment against Oscar Escandon in the co-feature.
Eddie Ramirez (17-1, 11 KOs) is returning to the series where he has had all of his success on FS1. Consecutive upset stoppage wins over unbeaten prospects Kevin Watts and Ryan Karl marked his rise by early 2017. A gritty win over fringe contender Erick Bone confirmed his rise later in the year. It was a split decision and Bone did have his moments, but it should have been unanimous.
This gave Eddie his biggest opportunity to date live on FOX against former lightweight titleholder Antonio DeMarco. DeMarco was thought to be on the downside of his career, but he revitalized it in a big way by catching an over eager Ramirez almost immediately and then blitzing him for the absolutely shocking stoppage all in the first round. That was in October and this will be Eddie Ramirez’s first fight back.
It is a bold fight too. Argenis Mendez (24-5-1, 12 KOs) is a solid fighter. The Dominican is a former world titleholder and holds quality wins over the likes of Juan Carlos Saldado, Miguel Vasquez, and most recently then unbeaten prospect Ivan Redkach last May. Mendez is being pulled up in weight here and the idea clearly is that this gives Ramirez the advantage, but this really is a stiff first fight back from such a dramatic first defeat. Eddie Ramirez’s head really better be in the right place for this one.
25 year old Mongolian Olympic silver medalist Tugstsogt “King Tug” Nyambayar (9-0, 8 KOs) takes a huge step up against a real contender in Oscar Escandon (25-3, 17 KOs) in the co-main event. Tug has been beating quality fighters for his single digit fights relative to the normal track and is an outstanding prospect in my view, but this is something else. While Escandon may have been blown out by Gary Russell Jr in his last fight, the fight before that he stopped a real quality contender in Robinson Castellanos to win a secondary belt. King Tug has not been in with a fighter even close to this quality. I think he probably handles it well though. Either way, we’re learning something real about a major prospect in this fight.
Justin DeLoach (17-2, 9 KOs) also returns on the card. DeLoach is a talented junior middleweight who can look great in there at times, but his chin has failed him twice now, most recently against Jamaican power puncher Nathaniel Gallimore last summer. His opponent, Jeison Rosario (14-1-1, 11 KOs), also fell to Gallimore the year before. This is an important fight for both men as we can basically write off the loser completely. To be honest it is unlikely that the winner becomes a world level contender at this point either though.
Lightweight prospect Joshua Zuniga (9-0, 4 KOs) opens the show against once beaten Justin Pauldo (10-1, 5 KOs). There isn’t as much on these two as those on the rest of the show. Of note, Zuniga did upset former US Olympian Raynell Williams in his most recent fight in December and will be looking to further build momentum off that win.
