The fight fan’s weeknight destination is elevating its game as the calendar turns to 2025.
ProBox TV has unveiled its first two U.S. domestic shows of the new year, tightly contested matchups that keep with the marching orders to stage high-risk, high-reward matches with narrow betting odds. (Disclosure: ProBox TV owns BoxingScene.)
The January 24 show in Tampa pits a ProBox TV stalwart, the 12-0 (6 KOs) light heavyweight Najee Lopez, against veteran Lenin Castillo, a 36-year-old veteran from the Dominican Republic with 32 professional bouts under his belt.
Georgia’s Lopez, 25, fought four times in 2023 and posted a further three victories on ProBox TV this year as he prepares to challenge the veteran.
Castillo (25-6-1, 19 KOs) has lost two of his past three bouts by decision, but he has fought both former 168-pound titleholder Callum Smith (a second-round knockout loss in a 2021 fight at 175) and recent light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol (a unanimous decision defeat in 2019).
Mexico’s Ruben Eduardo Aguilar (22-0-1, 19 KOs), brings his impressive knockout ratio to the January 24 co-feature versus veteran Cristian Baez (19-4, 17 KOs) of Venezuela.
Aguilar is averaging less than 2.4 rounds of work in his bouts. Now 24, “El Politto” is looking for some sterner tests, like the one he’s expected to receive from Baez, 33, who has dropped his past two bouts, both at the ProBox TV facility.
Baez previously fought recent featherweight world titleholder Luis Alberto Lopez as a lightweight in 2019, suffering a fifth-round technical-knockout loss.
The left-handed Baez has compiled 100 pro rounds, however, and is expected to provide gritty work for Aguilar.
On February 8 at the ProBox facility in Tampa, the card is headlined by a super bantamweight bout pitting top 10-ranked Ramon Cardenas (No. 2 WBA, No. 10 WBO) against Bryan Acosta.
San Antonio’s Cardenas (25-1, 14 KOs), is coming off a ProBox TV victory on April 24, when he defeated Jesus Ramirez Rubio by ninth-round knockout.
Cardenas, 29, meets Mexico’s unbeaten Acosta (20-0, 8 KOs), with the 26-year-old Acosta seeking increased activity after fighting just once in each of the past two years in his native country after taking three fights in Canada in 2022.
Also, the return of Guatemala’s Lester Martinez (18-0, 15 KOs) to ProBox TV follows two 2024 triumphs – a second-round knockout in February and a wide decision in June.
Trained by Terence Crawford’s lead cornerman, Brian “BoMac” McIntyre, Martinez has risen to No. 2 in the WBA rankings behind champion Canelo Alvarez, secondary titleholder Caleb Plant and top-ranked unbeaten Christian Mbilli. Martinez is also No. 8 in the WBC rankings.
Martinez meets Sacramento’s Joeshon James (9-0-2, 5 KOs), who claimed a unanimous-decision triumph over Vaughn Alexander in February 2024 on a ProBox TV card.
Later in February, ProBox TV stages a card in Bolton, England, that will be headed by light-heavyweight Radivoje “Hot Rod” Kalajdzic (29-3, 21 KOs).
On August 3, Kalajdzic went the distance with current WBA secondary light-heavyweight titleholder David Morrell of Cuba. Morrell on February 1 meets WBC interim titleholder David Benavidez to become mandatory foe to the winner of the February 22 light heavyweight title fight between undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev and former titleholder Dmitry Bivol.
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