ORANGE, California – With five knockouts in his first five fights, welterweight Joel Iriarte of Bakersfield, California has displayed so much in so little time.
His combined work required only 17 minutes and 21 seconds in the ring against foes with a combined record of 19-27-4.
Still, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions can plainly project the 21-year-old, 6ft 1ins Iriarte as a special talent, making him the opening fighter on the five-fight DAZN-streamed portion of the promotion’s 11-bout card at Honda Center in Anaheim, California on Saturday night.
Iriarte starts what he expects to be a busy 2025 campaign against a 36-year-old Florida fighter, Darel Harris, who has accumulated 177 rounds of professional action over 44 bouts.
“In my fights, I’ve been getting some quick knockouts, so I’m hoping I can get some more rounds under my belt – staying calm, showing more of my skill set. I can box. I can use my distance,” Iriarte told BoxingScene at Wednesday public workouts at SOA Boxing gym.
“[Harris] has experience. I’m expecting a tough fight from someone who’s rugged, someone who can use their experience to their advantage. I’m expecting a good fight.”
Iriarte believes he’s headed for as many as seven bouts this year. Considering the quality broadcast time he’s starting with, he’d like to make a push in a campaign for prospect of the year.
“Staying active, carrying off the momentum I have from last year … obviously knockouts and exciting fights put people in seats. I give those,” Iriarte said.
“With everything I did last year and [the expectations of] this year, bringing the momentum, the heat, the exciting fights and getting better with each fight … prospect of the year is something I definitely would be looking for by the end of 2025.”
NOT LIGHT ON POWER: Flyweights aren’t generally known for owning lofty knockout percentages, reflected in the figures of the division’s world champions, Angel Ayala (44 percent), Seigo Yuri Akui (52 percent) and Kenshiro Teraji (63 percent).
Hot on their tails is Ricardo Sandoval of Rialto, California, the No. 4-ranked contender among three sanctioning bodies (WBC, IBF, WBA) and No. 3 to WBO champion Anthony Olascuaga.
Sandoval, 25-2 (18 KOs), fighting Indianapolis’ Saleto Henderson, 10-1 (7 KOs), for the WBC silver belt Saturday on the DAZN-streamed portion of Golden Boy’s card in Anaheim, owns a 72 percent knockout rate.
It includes his latest victory, when he stopped former junior-flyweight champion Angel Acosta in the 10th round in July.
“I just train hard, and the pressure that I bring wears down the fighters,” Sandoval, 26, said. “By the end, they can’t handle it and break down.
“I try to wear them down at the body. At the beginning, they fast-jab, throw more punches and hit a little harder. By maybe the fifth or sixth round, I can see they’re breathing a little harder, moving a little slower or staying in the pocket.”
Sandoval has taken the same deliberate path up the rankings, but his patience is wearing thin and he’s hopeful that a convincing triumph over an opponent who’s never been stopped will boost his case to land a title shot this year.
Henderson, Sandoval says, “likes to box, likes to move around. I look forward to fighting him [because] I need to show more of what I can do, and now that I’m fighting someone who likes to move a lot, me coming in and putting the pressure on – going to the body – will show I’m capable of doing a lot of things.
“I’m right there [in all the rankings], so winning this fight can put me right where I want to be.”
A title fight is “long overdue. I need that. I just want an opportunity – from any champion.”
NEXT UP?: Kenneth Sims Jnr was due to fight against Oscar Duarte at the November “Latino Night” card in Saudi Arabia before bursitis in both knees forced him to withdraw, leaving Duarte to claim a victory by decision over Batyr Akhmedov.
Chicago’s Sims 21-2-1 (8 KOs) returns to the ring on Saturday’s card, taking a welterweight bout against San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda, 21-7 (9 KOs), on short notice as a play to get back to Duarte in short order.
“That’s the plan. That’s what I want,” Sims said. “I didn’t even want this fight. I just wanted to go right back to Duarte.”
When Duarte’s originally planned opponent, former 140-pound champion Regis Prograis withdrew due to an injury earlier this month, Sims said he did not have doctor’s clearance to resume boxing. That clearance, he said, arrived a day after Mexico’s Miguel Madueno was inserted into the main event.
Sims knows Castaneda from their amateur days. They never fought. Both have fought Elvis Rodriguez, with Sims delivering Rodriguez his lone defeat [in 2021] and Rodriguez defeating Castaneda by unanimous decision in September.
Sims, 31, is on an eight-fight winning streak dating to 2018 – including a 2023 majority decision over Akhmedov – and said he anticipates “overdue” entry into the 140-pound rankings and the Duarte fight.
“It’s what I’ve asked for [next],” he said.
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
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