Golden Boy’s March 23rd show on ESPN, the first of 42 between then and the end of 2018, has its main events. Irish prospect Jason Quigley headlines against Glen Tapia in a middleweight clash, while former IBF Bantamweight Champion Randy Caballero faces Victor Proa in the co-feature.
As a reminder, here’s Oscar’s quote about their mission statement:
"You will definitely see competitive fights and fighters who are ready to be tested; fighters who will grow up on the ESPN platform and then be ready to move to the HBO platform. We will have our top, top prospects going up against ex-world champions or prospects against prospects and contenders against contenders. This is not going to be by any means a series for us to use for fighters who just want to get a win."
This is...kinda true for the main event and blatantly false for the co-feature. Tapia (23-3, 15 KO) is Quigley’s (12-0, 10 KO) toughest test to date on paper, but he’s also coming off of thrashings from Michel Soro and David Lemieux. He just can’t seem to handle punchers anymore.
Still, that matchup is more than forgivable compared to the other one. Caballero (23-0, 14 KO) beat Stuart Hall for the aforementioned belt in 2014, then blew up the scale so badly for a planned defense against Lee Haskins that he actually missed the super bantamweight limit, too. His super bantamweight debut thirteen months ago was changed to a 124-pound catchweight at the last minute and this will be his first time at featherweight.
He’s got legitimate skills, though, and Proa (28-2-2, 21 KO) is criminally overmatched. He returned from a six-year layoff in February to knock out 0-4 Oswaldo Delgado before getting obliterated by Joseph Diaz in July. Boxrec has him ranked 403rd at featherweight to Caballero’s 32nd.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.