Brownsville fighter Omar “El Relampago” Juarez has some big aspirations in the boxing ring.
The super lightweight wants to become Brownsville’s first world champion.
Juarez took the first step toward reaching that goal with a successful, high-profile pro debut on Sunday’s nationally televised undercard of the Premier Boxing Champions show headlined by Weslaco’s Brandon Lee “Heartbreaker” Figueroa and Oscar Escandon at Ontario, California.
The boxing show aired live on Fox Sports 1.
Juarez prevailed with a unanimous four-round decision (39-37, 40-36, 40-36) against Matt Gavers of Bakersfield, California. Gavers, also a mixed martial arts fighter, fell to 0-2 in the boxing ring. He is 1-1 in MMA fights.
Juarez weighed in at 140.6 pounds Saturday. Gavers weighed 140.4 pounds.
The Brownsville fighter originally was scheduled to make his pro debut Aug. 24 in Minnesota on another Premier Boxing Champions show, but his opponent weighed in at 128 pounds, 13 pounds less than the specified fight weight, and the state boxing commission there refused to approve the bout.
That turn of events forced Juarez to wait until Sunday to make his pro debut, which was an opportunity to fight on national TV.
Juarez did everything that was expected of him in his pro debut. He fought under control with good movement around the ring as he chose his spots to land solid punches against his opponent.
Gavers came out aggressively, but Juarez maintained his composure and responded by landing frequent and accurate jabs to score points. For the most part, Juarez avoided Gavers’ strong punches with his movement. The Brownsville fighter landed solid right punches to the face of Gavers during the third and fourth rounds.
Juarez may get a chance to fight his second pro bout in December in Houston.
Regarding Sunday’s main event, Victor Ortiz originally was scheduled to headline the fight card in Ontario, California, against John Molina Jr. But Ortiz’s arrest last week in California prompted organizers to remove him from the show. Subsequently, Figueroa, a featherweight from Weslaco, was elevated on the card to take Ortiz’s place in the main event against Escandon.
Figueroa went into Sunday night’s fight with a 16-0 record and 11 knockouts. Escandon took a 25-4 record with 17 KOs into the scheduled 10-rounder.
UPCOMING
The STFC 48 mixed martial arts cage fighting show is scheduled Oct. 27 at McAllen Convention Center. It is expected to be an MMA show featuring amateur fighters. For more information, call (956) 562-2622 or (956) 414-8698.
