Photos by Lina Baker/See You Ringside Photography
On Thursday, March 23 at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California marks the debut of Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN 2.
The televised portion of the card starts at 10:00 pm, EST/7:00 pm, PST.
Jason Quigley (12-0, 10 KOs) looks to keep his momentum going in his young career against Glen Tapia (23-3, 15 KOs) for the vacant NABF Middleweight crown. Quigley is the 25-year-old Irishman who has made Southern California his second home with trainer Manny Robles.
This will be the first time Quigley headlines a card in his career, while Glen Tapia’s future hangs in the balance after getting stopped by David Lemieux in four rounds last May.
Golden Boy is very confident in Quigley putting on a show and having the Irishman headline their first ever card on ESPN puts no doubt in that.
Randy Caballero (23-0, 14 KOs), an exciting Super Bantamweight, has to be giddy as one can be to be as he returns to action for the first time in 13 months. “El Matador” is from Indio and has been a fixture on RingTV Live for Golden Boy.
He’ll be taking on Jesus Ruiz (36-7-5) from Nogales Sonora, Mexico. This contest is for the vacant NABF Super Bantamweight title.
Also, the televised action will be kicked off by Marlen Esparza’s professional debut. The Flyweight is a 2012 Bronze medalist for the US in the Olympic games in London. She’ll face Rachel Sazoff (0-2).
The non-televised portion of the card is listed as:
- 160 – Tureano Johnson (19-1,13 KO’s) vs Fabiano Pena (19-6-1, 15 KOs)
- 147 – Mauricio Herrera (22-7,7 KO’s) vs Hector Velazquez (57-28-3, 39 KOs)
- 126 – Azat Hovhannisyan (10-2, 9 KO’s) vs Diuhl Olguin (11-5-3, 9 KOs)
- 135 – Hector Tanajara (7-0, 4 KO’s) vs Daniel Perales (10-8-1, 5 KOs)
We’re coming up on close to two years since Friday Night Fights left us on ESPN. Almost 20 years since USA Tuesday Night Fights. So, it’s exciting to see Golden Boy stick its head above sea level and try to give boxing more of a pulse in 2017 .
There is still PBC Toe-to-Toe Tuesday’s that usually takes place on Fox Sports 1, and those cards so far this year have delivered some great action.
Of course, what will tell of this series on ESPN is the concept of the sport–you have to make good fights.
It will be interesting to see how social media reacts to these fights as on Thursday night you will also have the first night of the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament, with also NBA and NHL action.
