Everyone seems to want a piece of San Antonio-based welterweight and former 140-pound WBA World Champ Mario "El Azteca" Barrios since his upset of former welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas back in September. The 28-year-old San Antonian was long linked to a fight in Saudi Arabia with 140-pound world champion Devin Haney, who had his heart set on moving up to 147. The fight has not materialized, and with Haney having signed to fight Ryan Garcia on April 20th, the other major fight rumor involving the San Antonian may happen. According to Derek "Bozy" Ennis, the father and head trainer of IBF welterweight champion Jaron Ennis, the fight between his son and Barrios looks like a go. Ennis's name has been in the news lately, after being awarded the IBF welterweight belt, he sued his promoter, "NOW Boxing Promotions." The elder Ennis alleges the promoter is "essentially holding Ennis hostage" and is seeking at least $ 1 million in damages. Enis, who was awarded the IBF welterweight title after it was stripped off of Terence Crawford in late 2023. Crawford won the strap from long-reigning champ Errol Spence of DeSoto in July. That belt could very well find its way back to Texas and around the waist of Barrios, who held the WBA 140-pound world tile from 2019 to 2021 and vacated that belt to move up to 147 pounds. Barrios will look to jin current WBO/IBF Flyweight champ Bam Rodriguez as the only two Alamo City natives to capture titles in multiple weight classes
Hector Tanajara Looks To Bounce Back in Fresno
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
Bam Rodriguez to fight For Light Flyweight World Title
San Antonio is chock-filled with high-level blue-chip fighters. Mario Barrios, Josh Franco, Hector Tanjara, Ramon Cardenas, Kendo Castaneda, Gregory Morales, and the listguys on and on. Whenever any of the Alamo City fighters are asked who will be the next fighter from San Antonio to capture a world title the response is quick and unanimous. Without hesitation, they respond Bam Rodriguez. Rodriguez, an undefeated 108-pound prospect 13-0 (9), was our 2020 Prospect of the Year after scoring three knockouts in his three 2020 fights. The latter two of them were in the MGM Bubble on Top Rank cards and the first came at The Star in Frisco just prior to the pandemic on the undercard of Mikey Garcia vs Jessie Vargas.
To give context to just how special the San Antonian is both Vergil Ortiz and multi-time trainer of the year award winner have both said that Bam is the best fighter in the camp. Both the legendary future hall of famer trainer and Ortiz, who is considered among the best and most highly touted prospects in the sport, both agree that Rodriguez is the best fighter in the camp. A camp that features Mikey Garcia, Vergil Ortiz, Jose Carlos Ramirez as well as Josh Franco, and countless others. That is incredibly high praise for the 21-year-old. Rodriguez has been waiting for a world title shot for quite some time, when asked about a world title shot and who he would like to fight he said "My title shot is long overdue whenever one of them agrees to step in the ring with me, I'll be more than glad to do that." He is actually correct, despite being just 21-years-old his name has been mentioned in world title discussions since at least March of 2019 when he disposed of rugged veteran Rauf Aghayev in just three rounds on the undercard of Spence-Mikey Garcia. It's been two and a half years of waiting patiently. However, his time is coming.
The 21-year-old phenom is on the verge of becoming a world title and has been since he was a teenager. The COVID pandemic has delayed his title shot but that delay is over. Bam will get his shot to join big brother, Joshua Franco as a WBA world champion next month when he takes on Esteban Bermudez on October 16th on the undercard of Mikey Garcia vs Sandor Martin in Fresno, California at Chukchansi Park, home of the Fresno Grizzlies. Bermudez captured his version of the WBA belt back in May when he upset Venezuelan KO artist Carlos Canizales. This will be the first defense of the title. Also on the card, Elwin Soto, who holds the "Super" version of the WBA belt will defend against Puerto Rican veteran and former world title challenger Jonathan Gonzalez. Setting up a logical mega-fight between the winners.