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