San Antonio has quickly become the hottest city in the US for up-and-coming boxing stars. No star was shining brighter than the immensely skilled lightweight Hector "El Finito" Tanajara. He had compiled 19 straight wins had barely lost a single round and was on a fast track to becoming a world champion in the sports hottest division. He had captured, the WBC USNBC lightweight strap had scored a career-best win in the Alamodome against Juan Carlos Burgos and looked as sharp as any prospect in the sport. Covid hit, Tanjara was out of the ring, then a fight with Ryan Garcia, when King Ry seemingly ducked the fight. He instead opted to not fight at all. Leaving The San Antonio Native was left without a fight. A year and a half layoff for El Finito when it was all said and done. However, when he did get back into the ring he got a huge opportunity. The young, unbeaten upstart was scheduled to fight for the WBA Continental Americas title. That's when things went sideways for the Alamo City prospect. Tanajara squared off with an unbeaten but somewhat unknown prospect named William Zepeda of San Mateo Atenco, México. After an impressive opening stanza, Tanjara was unable to stay off the ropes and keep the fight in the center of the ring. Despite his finely tuned skills on the inside, Zepeda was just too much for the Texan. Zepeda broke his opponent down and trainer Robert Garcia informed the ref Tanajara could no longer continue handing El Finito his first career loss.
It's been nearly was eight months since that defeat and Tanjara looks to bounce back this Friday night on a Top Rank card in Fresno, California, that will air on ESPN. He will do battle with Miguel Contreras 11-1 (6), of Bakersfield, California. Contreras took his first career defeat on the same card. He was stopped in two rounds by hard-hitting Dominican Prospect Starling Castillo.
It's a big challenge for the Texan as both fighters absolutely need a win to stay relevant in the talent-loaded 135-pound division. Whoever captures the win likely goes back into title contention, while the loser takes a major step backward and becomes somewhat irrelevant in the lightweight division at least for the time being. Knowing exactly what on the line and how big the fight is Tanajara, didn't need or want a tune-up and is willing to travel to Contreas's backyard to prove that would happen in July to Zepeda was a fluke and that the skills and speed that shot him up the rankings are still all there. He wants to prove it was not hype it was an off night and he is as good as advertised. Prior to the Zepeda loss, there were conversations about fights with both Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, who now holds the WBC lightweight title. A win puts him right back into those conversations