Mongolia’s Tsendbaatar Erdenebat (7-0, 3 KOs) is exciting enough all on his own. The 5-foot-4 southpaw super featherweight/lightweight prospect has thudding power and sports bad intentions. He’s also blessed with an engaging personality and a certain charm that follows him into battle. He’ll be returning to the ring this Saturday, December 16 at Sony Hall in New York City in the main event of Boxing Insider’s Holiday Fight Night 2.
But the real buzz surrounding the two-time Olympic quarterfinalist, who accounted well for himself in a loss to Shakur Stevenson at the 2016 games in Rio, has thus far taken place outside the ring.
Earlier this year, as Ryan Garcia was preparing for his blockbuster clash with Gervonta “Tank” Davis on April 22, Erdenebat injured Garcia in sparring with a rib-bruising body shot that sent the young fighter to the hospital, something which led to the Mongolian mauler being fired by Garcia’s team.
Word of this injury reportedly got back to the Davis camp and they may or may not have constructed their game plan around exploiting that weakness. Whether or not that info altered any strategies will never be known by outsiders. But it would be a body shot from Davis that ultimately forced Garcia to take a knee and stay kneeling for the full ten count.
After the bout, word got out to the public that Garcia had been hurt in sparring. Erdenebat would release a video on social media where he took credit for softening Garcia up.
“Hey, King Ryan, I injured you with body shot,” he said in broken English. “Now you lost to Tank. I am sorry. Are you ok?”
The young prospect would be accused of being the “mole” who leaked that information to Team Davis, something which he denies.
“Who is [the] Mole?” Erdenebat responded in a follow-up video. “What are you talking about? I am not mole. I don’t even speak English. I don’t even like Tank. I will fight him and KO him in the future.”
This brief 15 minutes of main stage fame served to get him some spotlight time and it would lead to him getting a sparring gig with Devin Haney as he prepared to face Vasiliy Lomachenko in May.
However, Erdenebat and his team now want to get all their attention from what he does INSIDE the ring.
Pitted against veteran Yohan Vasquez (25-4, 20 KOs) in the main event of Saturday’s Holiday Fight Night 2 card, the fighter affectionately known as “Chinggis Khaan” by his stablemates at Manny Robles’ gym in Norwalk, California, is looking to make a statement.
His promoter Lou DiBella appears to be sold on the 27-year-old’s ability to make that statement.
“He’s a vicious, freakishly strong kid,” DiBella told BoxingScene.com back in April. “He barely speaks English, but he’s very confident. He has swag. And he’s got huge balls. He wants to step up and fight everybody right now. He’s already becoming a gym legend…There’s a buzz about him on the California boxing scene because of the way he’s been smashing people around in the gyms…The kid throws vicious body shots…he’s a terror…It’s gonna be a treat for people to see this kid.”
Fans will see for themselves this Saturday what Tsendbaatar Erdenebat can really do.
The 6-fight Boxing Insider Holiday Fight Night 2 card will also feature undefeated heavyweight prospects and highly regarded former amateur champions, Fernely Feliz Jr. (6-0, 5 KOs) and Pryce Taylor (1-0, 1 KO) in separate bouts. Also on the card, former world-ranked junior welterweight Cesar Francis (12-2, 7 KOs) will be on the comeback trail after two tough losses, facing the rough Windry Amadis Martinez (9-1, 5 KOs).
Boxing Insider Holiday Fight Night 2 will be held at Sony Hall on 246 W 46th Street in New York City. Doors open at 6:30, with the first fight at 8:00. Tickets are on sale now at TicketWeb and the event will air live and FREE on Boxinginsider.com and on YouTube.com/BoxingInsider.
