No matter where they are on the undercard of the April 27 World Boxing Super Series semifinal doubleheader at the Cajundome in Lafayette, there?s not a boxer in action that night who doesn?t have dreams, or at least had them at one time, of one day being where New Orleans native Regis Prograis will be that evening ? in the main event fighting for a world championship.
?Oh, absolutely,? said longtime Acadiana boxing figure Kerry Daigle, who is carrying the title ?executive strategist? for the show. ?Nobody gets into this business expecting to stay at the bottom.
?We?ve got folks on this card who are a year or two from fighting for titles themselves.?
Or maybe less than that.
Because of the nature of the WBSS, there are two feature events with boxers who could move into the main event should any of the title match participants ? Prograis vs. Kiryl Relikh for the WBA super lightweight championship and Nonito Donaire vs. Zolani Tete in a bantamweight unification match ? suffer an injury, fail to make weight or otherwise become disqualified during the week of the fight.
In other words, because the main event winners will be fighting for the tournament championship later this year, the show must go on.
So Sonny Frederickson (23-1), who is meeting Kazakhstan?s Bakhtiyar Eyubov in a 140-pound bout, or bantamweights Stephon Young (18-1-3) and David Reyes Cota (21-4-1) could find themselves in an unexpected spotlight.
All four of the potential substitutes for this card are ranked by at least one sanctioning body.
Those two fights also will be part of the card aired by DAZN, the British-based streaming service that has the rights to the WBSS.
?You hope you don?t have to use these guys in the main event,? said Leon Margules, who handles American promotions for the Swiss-based WBSS. ?But if you do, you want people who are capable of fighting for a championship on short notice.
?And their fights are also part of the TV show. So they?ve all got something to gain.?
That?s true throughout the card.
The most intriguing match pits undefeated Jeremy Hill (6-0), of New Orleans, against Kaylyn Alfred (3-1-1), of Lafayette, in a welterweight bout.
Hill scored undercard victories in both of Prograis? bouts in New Orleans last year while Alfred scored an upset decision over previously undefeated (11-0) Rickey Edwards in Edwards? hometown of Houston in September.
Also on the undercard is super lightweight Mason Menard (34-4-1) of Lafayette. Menard, who started his career 32-1-1, has lost three of his last five fights, including a first-round knockout at the hands of undefeated Olympian Teofimo Lopez in Madison Square Garden in December.
?Those were two hard punchers, and Lopez got him first,? Daigle said of Menard, who has 24 KOs. ?Mason has a lot of fight left in him.?
Menard will be meeting Ariel Vasquez (13-24-2), of Miami.
An intriguing female fighter on the card is Selina Barrios (5-0), of San Antonio, known as the ?Aztec Princess.?
Daigle said several potential opponents for Barrios have either declined to fight her or pulled out after accepting but that an opponent appears likely.
?Don?t worry about any of these fights being mismatches,? Daigle said. ?This is my hometown, and I?m not going to let that happen.?
