By: Ken Hissner
On Thursday night Golden Boy Promotions will put on a card from The Hangar, in Costa Mesa, CA, on ESPN2. Colombia’s Oscar “Jaguar” Negrete, 18-1 (7), living in Rosemead, CAL, will do battle with San Antonio’s Joshua “El Professor” Franco, 14-1 (7), over 10 rounds in the Bantamweight Main Event.
Negrete will be looking for his second victory of 2018 after stepping up in weight in December when he suffered his only loss by losing to WBC champion Mexico’s Rey Vargas, who was 32-0 at the time. He lost over 12 rounds by decision. He will be dropping back to bantamweight. The last twelve opponents Negrete has fought all had winning records. He’s made the bantamweight limit of 118 in eight of his nineteen fights.
Photo Credit: Golden Boy Promotions Twitter Account
Franco’s last eleven opponents had winning records and his only loss was out of the country in Puerto Rico losing to Argentina’s Lucas Emmanuel Fernandez Leone, 11-1-1, in March of 2018. He bounced back in June knocking out Mexico’s Isao Gonzalo “Kato” Carranza, 15-11, in five rounds. Prior to the one loss he defeated Carlos “Mighty” Maldonado, 11-1.
In the co-feature unbeaten Puerto Rico’s Welterweight Danielito “El Zorro” Zorrilla, 8-0 (7), of Rio Piedras, PR, faces unbeaten Dakota Linger, 10-0-2 (6), of Buckhannon, W.V., over 8 rounds.
Unbeaten Super Featherweight Jousce “Tito” Gonzalez, 8-0 (8), of Glendora, CA, looks to keep his knockout streak going taking on Ivan “Striker” Delgado, 12-1-1 (5), of L.A., CA, over 6 rounds.
Another unbeaten knockout artists is Super Bantamweight Carlos “Purin” Caraballo, 8-0 (8), of Ponce, PR, who meets Mexico’s Felipe “Panterita” Rivas, 17-21-4 (11), of El Paso, TX, over 6 rounds.