Following Saturday’s first-round knockout victory, it’s on to the next challenge for Omar “El Relampago” Juarez, an undefeated Brownsville fighter.
The promising super lightweight, now 4-0 with two KOs, made quick work of Seifullah Jihad Wise (3-7, one KO) on Saturday by dispatching the Philadelphia southpaw during the opening round at Houston’s NRG Arena. It was a fight on the undercard of a boxing show televised by Showtime and featuring WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo’s unanimous decision victory against Brandon Adams.
Juarez said he trained hard for an early victory with a KO against Wise, and that’s exactly what he got. Body shots took their toll from the outset. Wise went down twice before the bout was halted. In all, the fight lasted barely more than one minute.
“It went by really fast,” said Juarez, a 2016 Hanna graduate. “I came out as the aggressor, and once he saw that he just kind of shriveled up. He didn’t seem to want to fight anymore. Body shots put him down twice. I was training for this (kind of result).
“A win like that means a lot to me,” Juarez added. “It shows I belong (as a pro fighter). Things went really good for me, thanks to God. Now it’s on to the next one.”
Juarez next will be fighting on the Premier Boxing Champions show Aug. 24 at Edinburg’s Bert Ogden Arena.
The show will be headlined by Weslaco’s Brandon “Heartbreaker” Figueroa (19-0, 14 KOs), who will be defending his interim WBA super bantamweight title against scheduled opponent Javier Nicolas Chacon (29-4-1, nine KOs) of Argentina.
Besides Figueroa and Juarez, whose opponent has yet to be determined, other Lower Valley fighters set to appear on the show include Harlingen’s Raphael “Machine Gun” Murphy of Harlingen and Johnny “Blaze” Tapia of Brownsville.
Rudy Juarez, Omar’s father and trainer, said he was surprised by the number of supporters his son had at the Houston fight.
“Omar had a big crowd over there,” Rudy Juarez said. “Hundreds and hundreds of people went. That means the world to us. We’re very happy and humbled to have that kind of support. We thank them for going.
“Omar did what he had to do, and he did it fast,” he added. “Omar worked the body, and that was how he won. He came out clean (without injury), and that’s what we wanted because he’ll be fighting again real soon on the Brandon Figueroa show in Edinburg. Omar did a very good job getting the victory (on Saturday).”
