Two San Antonionians Headline; Six Texans in Action

The first major weekend of boxing of the new year is absolutely loaded and stacked with fighters from the Lone Star State. The two major cards this weekend are headed up by two fighters from San Antonio. Former WBA 140-Pound World champ, Mario Barrios, returns to the ring for the first time since his fight of the year type fight with Tank Davis in June of last year. Barrios suffered his first career loss to Davis, a three-division world champion, via 11th round TKO. Barrios moves up to welterweight for the first time and instead of fighting a soft touch, he opted for the biggest challenge of his professional career. He battles former unified welterweight champ, Keith Thurman in the main event of a card at The Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. About 300 miles away at the Footprint center in Phoenix, Arizona. Barrios's long-time friend and fellow Alamo City native Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez literally and figuratively take the biggest fight of his career. The 22-year-old phenom jumps up not one, but two weight classes to battle future hall of famer Carlos Cuadras for the WBC Super Flyweight strap and looks to capture the first world title of his promising career. A career that is expected to produce multiple world titles in multiple weight classes.

While Barrios and Bam headline the cards, the undercards are stacked with Texans. On the undercard of Thurman-Barrios, Brownsville native and highly touted jr welterweight prospect "El Relampago" Omar Juarez will battle long time contender "Cowboy" Ryan Karl, who hails from a town called Milano, a small town about 60-70 miles northeast of Austin, in an all Texas throwdown. Karl, 19-3 (12)  had previously fought for a world title when he lost to Barrios in San Antonio on the undercard of Davis-Santa Cruz. Juarez, the blue-chip prospect, is on the fast track to fighting for a world title at 140 pounds and sports a 12-1 (5) record, he suffered his first career defeat back in June when he dropped a split decision to All Rivera in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He bounced back nicely and scored a dominant one-sided decision over 40-fight veteran Jairo Lopez. The fight will air on Fox in the build-up to the Thurman-Barrios PPV. Also on the card is Corpus Christi native John Rincon. He puts his 5-0 (2) record on the line against 4-0 (4) Ramon Duarte Marquez in a battle of unbeaten prospects. After a quick start to his career that saw Rincon fight on several major cards, he has been out of the ring for nearly two years for a litany of reasons.

On the Arizona card headlined by Cuadras and Bam Rodriguez, Fort Worth native, undefeated Edward "Kid" Vazquez will battle highly touted and undefeated New Jersey-based prospect Raymond "Savage" Ford in what promises to be a TV-friendly fight between two unbeaten featherweight prospects. Vazquez has delivered action-packed fights in the past when he got up off the canvas to dominate Adan Ochoa in a bout that was televised on ESPN and then he delivered a non-stop fight of the year type slugfest and outlasted Irvin Gonzalez on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr PPV in November of 2020. Vazquez sports a perfect 12-0 (3) record and could be looking at a world title fight by the end of the calendar year should he beat Ford Saturday night at the Footprint Center

San Antonio's Favorite Son Set To Return At New Weight

San Antonio loves a champion and when "El Azteca" Mario Barrios rallied to score a 12th round knockdown of Batyr Akhmedov to capture the WBA Jr Welterweight crown, becoming San Antonio's first world boxing champion in a quarter-century.  He was treated to a hero's welcome. He was honored by Southwest High school where he graduated from. He was also honored by the cities other champions the San Antonio Spurs. He made the first defense of his belt back in his hometown and got a massive applaud when he stopped fellow Texan Ryan Karl in October of last year. When he came up short for the first time in his career against Tank Davis in what was a fight of the year type brawl, Barrios was again treated as a hero when he returned home. San Antonio has continued to celebrate and support El Azteca and he is set to embark on the biggest fight of his career. He will step in with former unified welterweight kingpin, Keith "One Time" Thurman. Thurman held welterweight world titles from 2014-2019 and was working on putting together a hall of fame resume when he suffered his first career loss. A split decision loss to the legendary Manny Pacquiao in July of 2019. Thurman has been inactive since. 

That will change, and Thurman will end the 30-month hiatus on January 29th when stepping back in the ring with El Azteca.  Thurman has long been linked to a fight with another Texan, Errol Spence Jr, for many years. That fight never came to fruition and Thurman will try and mess with another Texan in Barrios in a fight that will likely lead to the winners getting that Spence fight later in 2022.  It's a big test and challenge for the highly inactive Thurman, it's no tune-up fighting a former world champion, showing that he wants to get right back into the mix and challenge for a world title this year. For the San Antonian, it's a huge test, Thurman marks the best fighter Barrios has ever been in with, and it's a monumental step up as well as an incredible display of courage and confidence to step into the ring with an all-time great 147-pounder like Thurman. Barrios clearly wants to become a two-division world champ and now has a clear path to doing so by 2022.