Can Jose Pedraza become Puerto Rico's next big star?
Felix Verdejo is a budding star from Puerto Rico, but there's a fighter from the island who has already graduated past prospect status and deserves recognition of his own.
Jose Pedraza, just 26 years old, won the IBF super lightweight title in June with a near-shutout victory over Andrey Klimov. The Sniper dazzled with his sharp shooting, speed and movement in the bout and looks like one of the best young fighters in the sport.
Pedraza (20-0, 12 KOs) makes the first defense of his title Saturday against veteran Edner Cherry in the Showtime co-feature.
"Edner is a very strong fighter, he's a veteran boxer, lot of experience," Pedraza told Paste BN Sports through co-promoter Javier Bustillo. "I have the youth, I have momentum and I'm going to win the fight."
Cherry is a hard-nosed puncher who has been around for a long time. He's won 10 consecutive fights since a 2008 loss to Timothy Bradley, though against nondescript opposition. The 33-year-old native of Bahamas is a big underdog, but should be able to give Pedraza rounds and make him work in a great building fight.
"Everyone says they're going to come knock me out, good luck to him. It's not happening," Pedraza said. "He has a lot of experience as a professional, but I have been fighting for a long time as well so I'm not worried about who he's faced. I'm ready for 12 rounds but I want to get him out of there sooner. I'm going to work the body hard to try to get that done."
Pedraza started fighting at 12 years old after his father, Luis Espada, took him to a local boxing show in Puerto Rico. The young Pedraza loved the action and soon started fighting under the watchful of his dad, who has trained him since Day 1.
He's eyeing a big 2016 and fancies unification fights against the likes of Javier Fortuna, Takashi Miura and also named Francisco Vargas as a possibility. Co-promoter Lou DiBella told Paste BN Sports that those matchups are possible for next year, but Pedraza's next six months are already planned out.
Assuming he gets past Cherry, Pedraza will make a mandatory defense against England's Stephen Smith and then look to unify against Fortuna, Miura or Gamboa.
"I think in terms of talent he's in the upper echelon of guys," DiBella declared. "He dominated (Klimov) for the title. He abused that kid. The fight before that, he destroyed Michael Farenas, who is a very tough kid.
"I really believe that Tevin Farmer has world championship ability and he beat him in his first 10-round fight on ShoBox. He has not been babied. His level of opposition vs. level that Verdejo has fought, it's not even close. He's fought a whole different caliber of opposition."
Why has Verdejo received so much attention and praise while Pedraza hasn't? The outspoken DiBella has a theory.
"If a lot of other young fighters were doing (what Pedraza is) the media would be on their knees bowing to them," he said. "And somehow promoters are to blame for not getting fighters attention. It's an indication of an imbalanced press corps in a fractionalized business where people are on the sides of certain people and not giving coverage where it's deserved."
If Pedraza keeps winning (and in style), people will have no choice but to notice.