A credit card advertising campaign claims that “Visa is everywhere you want to be.” Try telling that to Jimrex Jaca. The featherweight contender wants to be in El Paso this weekend for an HBO Pay Per View headline bout against Juan Manuel Marquez. His trip, and the fight, were canceled when visa woes—the travel document, not the credit card—prevented him from entering the United States.
The development is bad news indeed for several parties: Jaca, standing at the U.S. border waving goodbye to the highest profile bout of his career; Marquez, left without a Saturday night date; early PPV customers, deprived of seeing the main event they paid for; and HBO, who was left scrambling for a PPV-worthy show mere days before the event.
One man’s disappointment is another man’s opportunity, however. There are plenty of fighters ready to jump into the televised void left by Marquez-Jaca. Daniel Ponce de Leon and Al Seeger get promoted from supporting act to main event. That leaves an opening lower on the televised portion of the card, and as the dominoes continue to fall, four other fighters stand to benefit.
Moving from opening act to second-in-command is the light welterweight bout between Juan Lazcano and Manuel Garnica. Both men have bounced back from periods of inactivity with a successful 2006 campaign.
Lazcano, “The Hispanic Causing Panic,” is making other fighters in the division nervous once again. As a lightweight, Lazcano put together a nineteen-fight win streak from 1998 to 2003, culminating with a TKO victory over Stevie Johnston. The streak included wins over Jesse James Leija and John John Molina, who holds a win over Garnica—Lazcano’s upcoming opponent. Lazcano featured knockout power, with 27 stoppages in his 36 career wins, including 16 KO’s during his win streak.
Lazcano has fought just four times since the Johnston win. His next bout was for the WBC title. The unanimous decision loss to Jose Luis Castillo was a turning point for both fighters. Castillo went on to a famous but snake-bit series with Diego Corrales, while Lazcano left the division and took fourteen months off from the sport. He returned to the ring five pounds heavier and showed he could bring his power up to 140. He scored back-to-back knockouts, including a ninth-round stoppage of Courtney Burton.
In his only 2006 outing, Lazcano won a lopsided unanimous decision over Ben Tackie. The bout launched him up the Light Welterweight ratings and, if things go well, should eventually lead to another title shot, perhaps even against Castillo, who ate himself out of Lightweight.
Manuel Garnica is more of an unknown commodity. Just three of his 25 career fights have been in the United States, with most of his experience coming in his home town of Guadalajara, Mexico.
Garnica had a slow start to his career, losing his debut and twice in his first eight outings. His recent experience is also spotty, with two losses in his last three bouts. In between, he’s had a strange mix of activity levels.
Garnica took two years off after his debut fight, then embarked on a blitz of fights. Garnica fought seven times in 1996, five times in 1997, three times in 1998 and five times in 1999.
It seemed that he was on the verge of breaking out as a fighter. Garnica’s fourth bout of 1999 was his U.S. debut, and he pulled an upset win over former world champion Gabriel Ruelas. Garnica jumped back into the ring just 44 days later, losing to John John Molina.
Following the loss, Garnica took six years off. His next bout came 73 months later and ran his losing streak to two. Michael Rosales stopped Garnica in his comeback bout with a seventh round TKO. Garnica has fought once this year, getting back on the winning track with a comfortable unanimous decision over Carlos Maussa.
Lazcano should be favored, but Garnica has come up big against his big-name opponent. He’ll need to keep his distance against the bigger, more powerful Lazcano.
With Lazcano-Garnica moving up on the card, a slot opened for a pair of super bantams. Antonio Escalante will put his 13-1 record and a minor belt on the line against the seasoned Omar Adorno.
While their names may not be recognizable, both fighters have proven themselves against tough competition. Escalante has won nine straight, and three of his last four victories are over twenty-win fighters, including knockouts of Alex Baba and Trinidad Mendoza. Escalante also pitched a near shutout against 21-2 Juan Ruiz, winning 120-108, 119-109, and 119-109. The fourth opponent was hardly a slouch—19-2 Jose Andres Hernandez, who gave Escalante the toughest bout of the stretch, a 1, 3, and 2 point unanimous decision in favor of Escalante.
Meanwhile, Adorno’s 18-7-1 record is misleading. His losses include Martin Castillo, Gerardo Espinoza, Cesar Figueroa, and Orlando Salido. He’s also dropped a decision to former Olympian Abner Mares.
Escalante is the taller, younger fighter, and promoters are likely looking to showcase the prospect. Adorno should provide a test for the youngster, but his last win over a ten-win fighter was in 2002, fifteen months before Escalante’s debut.
Lazcano, Garnica, Escalante and Adorno are all getting unexpected exposure thanks to Jimrex Jaca’s bad luck. The two bouts will send the winners’ stop-and-go careers on an upswing, while the losers’ will need to regroup.
And the dominoes will continue to fall.
