Ernesto Mercado to make Matchroom debut vs. Jose Pedraza on January 25

BoxingScene’s 2023 prospect of the year Ernesto “Tito” Mercado signed with Matchroom Boxing in August and was supposed to make his promotional debut in November, but opponent Jesus Saracho tipped the scales seven pounds over and the fight was called off.

 Eddie Hearn is not wasting too much time getting his junior welterweight prospect back into the ring, and this time it’s against a professional with even better name-brand recognition, as Mercado will take on former 130 and 135-pound titleholder Jose Pedraza on January 25, a source told BoxingScene.

The fight will take place at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on DAZN on the undercard of the yet-to-be-announced card headlined by super middleweight contender Diego Pacheco’s clash against Steven Nelson.

Having already beaten former title challengers like Jeremia Nakathila, Jayson Velez, Hank Lundy and durable contenders like Xolisani Ndongeni, Mercado, 16-0, (15 KOs), will now face his first former world champion in Pedraza, 29-6-1, (14 KOs).

Pedraza is winless in his last four fights, with one of the results being a split draw against Richard Commey in 2022. The recent losses have come against Keyshawn Davis, Arnold Barboza Jr., and Jose Ramirez. Defeats to Jose Zepeda in 2019, Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2018, and Gervonta Davis in 2017 are also on the 35-year-old Puerto Rican’s ledger.

Pedraza won the WBO lightweight title in 2018, when beating Ray Beltran, but then lost to Lomachenko immediately after. He scored the IBF junior lightweight title in 2015 by beating Andrey Klimov. Pedraza made two defenses of that belt before losing to Davis. 

Against Keyshawn Davis, Pedraza suffered the second knockout loss of his career; a one-sided, sixth-round stoppage in February. 

The hard-hitting Mercado, a 23-year-old from Pomona, California, averages just under three rounds a fight. His 2024 campaign has included stoppage wins against Cristian Bielma, Deiner Berrio, and Hector Sarmiento.

“Everybody has been talking about this young man,” Hearn said of Mercado during his signing earlier this year. “He’s a strong fighter and is exciting. He’s a wrecking machine. He’s going to be a world champion. The path is there for him to get the big fights and become a superstar in the sport. Now we’re going to build him beyond boxing as a star. And when you have someone as good and dangerous as he is, it makes my job easy.”

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.