"El Relampago" Omar Juarez of Brownsville has taken a cosmic leap in 2022, taking two step-up fights and getting decision victories over two well-known opponents. In February, he outpointed former World title challenger "Cowboy" Ryan Karl of Milano, Texas, in what turned out to be a highly entertaining blood and guts scrap. Juarez took the split decision and captured the vacant WBC international welterweight title. He then came back in December on the undercard of Michel Rivera VS Frank Martin and scored a one-sided beat down of noteworthy contender Austin Dulay. Despite being deducted three points due to low-blows, the Rio Grande Valley native still rolled to a wide unanimous points victory.
Juarez has just gotten his next opponent, and it will be no easy task. "El Relampago" will battle 37-year-old former two-division world champion "Kid Blast" Rances Barthelemy on May 13th in the Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas. Barthelemy 29-2-1(15) captured the IBF 130-Pound title in 2014 and defended once before moving up to lightweight and captured the vacant IBF title by outpointing the rugged Denis Shafikov in December 2015. He defended that belt once in 2016 before moving up to 140 pounds, where he twice challenged for a title and came up just short both times. He lost a decision to Kiryl Relikh for the vacant WBA strap at the Freeman Coliseum in 2018 and then fought Robert Easter to a draw in 2019 for the same belt.
It will be the first former world champion that the 23-year-old from Brownsville has faced. He has been moved along quickly and is 3-0, since his lone career setback, a hotly debated and very controversial loss to All Rivera in the summer of 2021. The winner will take another giant step toward a world title. The world titles at 140, are currently held by Scotsman Josh Taylor, who holds the WBO belt. WBC champion Regis Progrias who trains in the Main St Gym in Houston with famed trainers Bobby Benton and Aaron Navarro. The WBA champ is Albert Puello of the Dominican Republic, and hard-hitting Puerto Rican KO artist Subriel Matias owns the IBF strap. The latter two champions fight on the PBC side, as does Juarez, meaning a world title fight with Juarez versus either of those two would be very easy to make. Juarez has a 14-1 (5) record and turned pro in October 2018.