It wasn't long ago Hector "El Finito" Tanjara's name was mentioned in fights with Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia. Tanajara, one of San Antonio's brightest young stars, actually had signed a contract to fight Garcia on multiple occasions, when both fighters were promoted by Golden Boy. The Texan had signed to fight Garcia during the height of the pandemic. It was Garcia, who on multiple occasions, ducked the Alamo City native. "El Finito" Tanajara was regarded as one of the sport's brightest prospects before he suffered back-to-back hiccups. A stoppage loss to William Zepeda in the summer of 2021 and then a 2022 draw with Miguel Contreras on a Top Rank Card at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California.
It's been a year since the loss to Contreas, and Tanajara has regrouped and is rebuilding. He moved up to 140 from 135 pounds and picked up an impressive stoppage win back in November against Antonio Mejia to get back in the win column and get him back on track. There's a path for "El Finito" to get back to where he belongs. That's on the world-class stage among the most elite fighters in the world. The 26-year-old Tanajara's comeback continues Sunday afternoon in his home city at the Alzafar Shrine Auditorium. He will battle rugged contender Johnny Arellano in a six-round main event. There's a path back in place, Arellano is a step up, and assuming all goes well on Sunday, Tanajara is already scheduled to be back in the ring in May, where he will likely take another step up and get one step closer to a world title.
Arellano, an Austin native, despite having been inactive since 2019, is nobody's tune-up. He lost to Mykal Fok in Philadelphia in December of 2019 and has not fought since. Arellano, who sports a 10-2 (9) record, is a 6'2, long, rangy, hard-hitting boxer-puncher. He was a fairly well-regarded prospect not too long ago as well. Arellano suffered an early loss in his career. A controversial stoppage loss in his fourth pro bout, that he bounced back from. Following that loss, the Austin native scored seven consecutive victories, six of them by stoppage. He improved his record to 10-1, picking up high-caliber wins over respected names like D'angelo Keyes and Xavier Wilson on fairly big stages. Those wins got Arellano a big fight on a big stage against Fox. A fight that Arellano came up a little short in via unanimous decision. Although he has been inactive over the last three years Arrelano, given his size, skill, and pop, is always a threat and should be a decent metric to judge how far along Tanajara is in his comeback.