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Former IBF super featherweight champ Jose Pedraza, out of action since a TKO loss to Gervonta Davis in January of 2017, is on the comeback trial. The 28-year-old is looking to return to action in 2018, this time as a lightweight. He is also free of the promotional issues that apparently kept him inactive.
Pedraza (22-1, 12 KO), a 2008 Olympian from Puerto Rico, defeated Andrey Klimov for the title in 2015 and successfully defended it against Edner Cherry (controversially) and Stephen Smith (less so). He was no match for Davis, though, and was down 5-1 when he was stopped in the seventh round.
The current crop of lightweight champions includes Mikey Garcia, Jorge Linares, Robert Easter Jr., and Ray Beltran, so the path to a title is going to be a wee bit trickier for Pedraza than last time. Anyone think Pedraza has a reasonable chance against any of that crop?