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Veterans Pablo Cesar Cano and Roberto Ortiz will return to action in a Golden Boy Fight Night junior welterweight main event from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, on Saturday, Nov. 16.
Cano (32-7-1, 22 KO) is coming off of arguably the biggest win of his career in January, where he overpowered Jorge Linares in just 2:48 in Linares’ ill-fated step up to 140 pounds. The 30-year-old Mexican fighter got his first taste of the spotlight about eight years ago, when he was the guy the WBC sanctioned against Erik Morales for a vacant 140-pound title, a transparent (and successful!) attempt to give Morales a world title in a fourth weight class.
But Cano, despite being overmatched against an even an old and undersized Morales that night, showed a toughness, and he’s made good on that to go on to a solid if inconsistent career. In 2012, he was on the bad end of a controversial split decision against Paulie Malignaggi, but he also didn’t make weight for that fight. He then lost a competitive decision to an over the hill Shane Mosley in 2013, beat Ashley Theophane that same year, and was then stopped in nine on a bad cut by journeyman Fernando Angulo in 2014. That up-and-down run would continue through 2017.
Right now, Cano has won two straight over Ruslan Madiyev and Linares, and he’s still at an age where he really might have come into his own and be ready to put on a run at 140.
Ortiz (35-4-2, 26 KO) has lost three straight fights and in two of them he was pulverized. In fact, he hasn’t actually won a fight since April 2017, going 0-3-1 in his last four. He was beaten down by Cletus Seldin in Nov. 2017 on HBO, lost a decision in Mexico to Jose Eduardo Lopez Rodriguez in June 2018, and three months later was flattened in two by Vergil Ortiz Jr. He hasn’t fought since then. He also got taken out in two by Lucas Matthysse back in 2014.
After building up his record in Mexico, Ortiz is 4-4-1 in his last nine fights, and none of the wins were against significant competition.
The co-feature will see Ricardo Sandoval (16-1, 11 KO) and Gilberto Gonzalez (15-2-1, 12 KO) square off in a 10-round flyweight bout.
The show will stream live on Facebook.