Laredo boxing is absolutely surging with Emilio Garcia and Jennifer Lozano thriving in the international amateur scene and on the path to qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics and Jorge Castaneda battling his way into world title contention and upcoming protege Felix "Gatito" Garcia turning his heads and compiling a perfect 7-0 (1) record. Another skilled Laredoan will get a major opportunity to shine. Jose Cardenas, 7-1 (5), will battle undefeated prospect Abdullah Mason, a 19-year-old lightweight from Cleveland, Ohio, on November 16th. Mason sports a perfect 10- 0 (8) record and is considered one of the world's brightest prospects. The bout will take place in Las Vegas on the undercard of Shakur Stevenson- Edwin De Los Santos battle at the T-Mobile Arena for the vacant WBC Lightweight world title. Mason has been a staple of ESPN and Top Rank since turning pro in 2021. He last fought Cesar Villarraga in Oklahoma back in August.
Cardenas last fought in July and scored a career-best win. The Laredoan dropped and battered undefeated Hugo Castaneda at the Sames Auto Arena on a spectacular Pound-4-Pound Promotions Card. Additionally, Cardenas has one blemish on his resume: a third-round DQ loss to Marco Castro. An April 2019 affair appeared to have been waved off by the referee in favor of Cardenas, who was in complete control of the scrap and was unaware the bout was being stopped and continued to tee off on Castro while the ref was trying to jump in and wave the bout off. This caused the referee to DQ Cardenas in highly controversial fashion. The South Texan bounced back from the hotly debated DQ loss a few months later and destroyed Diego Contreras in two rounds on a days notice.