The Top Rank/Fox Sports Espa?ol seven-fight card scheduled Feb. 6 at the new McAllen Convention Center figures to be one of the biggest boxing events to come to the Rio Grande Valley in quite some time.
“We haven’t had a boxing show like this down here in at least two years,” said veteran trainer James Gogue, who has a fighter, Mission light welterweight Humberto “Tito” Ramos (10-0, seven knockouts), on the undercard. “Every one of the fights on this card is going to be a great fight.”
Fox Sports Espa?ol and Fox Sports Net are scheduled to televise the show live internationally.
The 12-round main event will match Brandon Rios (23-0-1, 17 KOs) of Oxnard, Calif., against Jorge Luis Teron (23-1-1, 15 KOs) of the Bronx, N.Y., for the interim NABF lightweight title.
The co-main event of 10 rounds is set between featherweights Tomas Villa (21-6-4, 14 KOs) of Midland and Juan Ruiz (23-5, seven KOs) of Santa Clarita, Calif.
Also featured on the undercard are Corpus Christi featherweight Jerry Belmontes (10-0, three KOs), Dallas super bantamweight Robert Marroquin (11-0, eight KOs) and Houston light middleweight Omar Henry (7-0, six KOs). All three are Top Rank fighters whose careers are on the rise.
The two Valley fighters set to appear on the show are Ramos and cruiserweight Eric “Drummer Boy” Molina (12-1, 10 KOs) of Lyford.
“To me, it’s an honor to be on this card,” said Molina, who captured a WBC Latino title on Oct. 10, 2009, with a victory over Gabriel Holguin on South Padre Island. “When I first heard about the lineup, I realized there are a lot of undefeated fighters on it. They’re all main-event fighters on one card. I’m staying focused, training hard, and I look forward to sharing the ring with some of the best fighters in the country.”
Ramos is equally grateful for his chance to appear on the card after recently serving as a sparring partner for current and former world champions Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Diaz.
“I think 70 percent of the boxing game is psychological,” Ramos said. “If I can handle Mayweather, I can handle anybody. I feel like a different fighter and a different man now. I’m more confident and I’m ready for whatever.”
For ticket information, call Anthony Cavazos Promotions at (956) 630-1317 or the new McAllen Convention Center ticket office at (956) 681-3800.
UPCOMING
The next scheduled Julio Marines Promotions card is now set for March 6 in Harlingen and not Feb. 27 as was previously reported. The show will be headlined by Brownsville bantamweight Sergio “Time To Shine” Perales (13-0, eight KOs) fighting in the main event and Weslaco light middleweight Roberto “La Amenaza” Garcia (27-2, 20 KOs) appearing in the co-main event.
Mission featherweight Guadalupe de Leon (8-9, four KOs) is scheduled to fight Feb. 27 on a Top Rank/Fox Sports Espa?ol show in Los Angeles.
Light middleweight Carson Jones (24-7-1, 15 KOs), an Oklahoman who fights out of Weslaco, has just signed to take on Antonio Margarito (37-6, 27 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico, on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey card March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
YOUNG PROSPECT UPDATE
Enrique Alvarez, a 15-year-old from San Juan, won a Silver Gloves regional championship at 139 pounds earlier this month at Little Rock, Ark. He defeated state champions from Oklahoma and Louisiana en route to earning a berth at the Silver Gloves national tournament starting Feb. 4 in Kansas City.
