On Thursday, December 18th at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, ProBoxTV will present “Merry Fistmas!” live at 7:00 pm ET/4:00 pm PT. The ten-round “don’t blink” main event sees Ramon “Dinamita” Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) of San Antonio, Texas return to US soil to face Mexico's Erik “Terrible” Robles (16-3, 10 KOs). Cardenas, age 30, is best known for his most recent fight, a valiant stand against world super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue in May of this year, where he ultimately lost by technical knockout in the eighth round but famously knocked down the formidable champion in the second. “It’s an ideal comeback fight for Ramon,” said ProBoxTV's founder and CEO, Garry Jonas. “We don’t give tune-up fights, so it’s no walk in the park either. Ramon is a super entertaining fighter and a test like this will keep him ready. It will be a typical ProBoxTV high-action fight while it lasts!”
In the ten-round middleweight co-feature, Olympic champ Hebert Conceicao (9-0, 5 KOs) of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, will face Mexican veteran Elias “Latin Kid” Espadas (23-7-1, 16 KOs) in a strong test for the Brazilian. “I think the world of Hebert,” continued Jonas. “Check him out. And Espadas is no slouch. Earlier this year, Sadriddin Akhmedov was considered a hot, undefeated prospect and Espadas fought him to a draw, right in his home state. This fight will let us all take a good look at the gold medalist and see what he really has in the pros. Hebert is fun to watch and we have him on the fast track. If he wins this fight, he will have a big year ahead of him.”
Cardenas had won 14 consecutive fights before facing Inoue, including three consecutive on ProBoxTV: a TKO 6 over Israel Rodriguez Picazo (then 30-5) in February of last year, a KO 9 over Jesus Ramirez Rubio (then 22-2-3) in April of last year, and a unanimous decision over Bryan Acosta in February of this year. Cardenas also famously knocked out out formerly undefeated Panamanian Rafael Pedroza in the second round in one of the final ShoBox: The New Generation episodes.
“Training is going great,” said Cardenas. “I’m training with Manny Robles in LA and he’s a great match for me. We are fixing mistakes I’ve been making in the past, patching them up. I don’t really like watching tape of my opponents, so I don’t know much, but he has to adjust to me like I have to adjust to him. I’ve always said you can fight the same guy 100 times and every time will be different any way. People are expecting me to do good now, so I have a responsibility to show the fans that my fight with Inoue wasn’t a ‘one hit wonder.’”
Against Cardenas, 25-year-old Erik Robles will be having his first fight in the United States after turning professional in 2019 and spending his career in Mexico and the UK. The powerful slugger is best known for winning the IBO super bantamweight title against Lee McGregor (then 12-0-1) via unanimous decision in July 2023 and then registering a unanimous ten-round decision win over Cesar Vaca Espinoza (then 16-0-1) in his very next fight in December 2023.
“Training's going great,” said Robles. “We've been sparring with boxers like Christian Cruz, Logan Hernandez, Chino Quintana, and others. We've also added pool training to our preparation, which is a bonus and something different from what we normally do. We know Cardenas is an elite fighter with excellent technique and tremendous power. We all saw his performance against Inoue, and that's keeping us on high alert to continue preparing for what's coming on December 18th. It's a fight where anything can happen. He's a dangerous fighter, and so am I. The difference between us is that I have nothing to lose.”
Before turning professional in 2022, Conceicao won a middleweight gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and took bronze in the 2019 World Amateur Championships. In just nine professional fights, Conceicao has already beaten two Brazilian countrymen and 2012 London Olympics medal-winning brothers, Esquiva and Yamaguchi Falcao. In June 2024, in just his sixth fight, Conceicao won a unanimous ten-round decision over younger brother and Silver Medalist Esquiva Falcao and, in his most recent ring appearance in September of this year, repeated the feat against older brother and bronze medalist Yamaguchi Falcao to win the Brazilian (CNB) title. In his lone ProBoxTV appearance to date in May of this year, Conceicao stopped iron-chinned Rowdy Legend Montgomery in two one-sided rounds.
Better than his record, Montgomery had previously taken the undefeated 0 from Kareem Hackett (then 12-0) via KO 3, as well as gone the distance with Elijah Garcia, Steven Nelson, former title challenger Maciej Sulecki and Jonathan Esquivel (7-0) before running into Conceicao’s heavy hands.
The 35 year-old Espadas hails from Merida, Yucatán, Mexico. A 13-year professional, Espadas defeated Alan Carrillo via KO 2 in 2017. In his very next fight the following year, he KO'd Felipe Santos Pedroso in three rounds. Most recently, Espadas fought to a ten-round majority draw with undefeated Sadriddin Akhmedov in April and then lost an abbreviated five-round technical decision to streaking Irish prospect Callum Walsh in June, when the fight was stopped before it really got started in the fifth round, due to an accidental headbutt.
The night’s televised undercard will consist of a ten-round junior welterweight battle between “Marvelous” Mykquan Williams (22-1-2, 11 KOs) of Connecticut, and Jair “Kaiser” Valtierra (18-3, 9 KOs) of Mexico, as well as an eight-round middleweight slugfest Cuba’s Yojanler Martinez (5-0-1, 2 KOs) and Joeshon “Shontime” James (9-1-2, 5 KOs) of Sacramento, California.
“It’s a deep card overall,” said Garry Jonas. “Mykquan Williams vs. Jair Valtierra could be the co-main event. That’s a hell of a fight. Williams will be looking to come back from his first career loss, so Valtierra will tell the tale if he’s got what it takes. It’s ‘do or die’ for Mykquan. Is he a contender or not? And Yojanler Martinez vs. Joeshon James is a fun fight. Martinez is a ‘balls to the wall’ kind of fighter, while James is also back from his first loss. It’ll be a classic ProBoxTV crossroads battle.”
The action will start with Puerto Rico’s undefeated Bryan Polaco (7-0, 5 KOs) running into hard-rock Marlon Harrington (12-2, 10 KOs) from Detroit.
On fight night, doors Open at 6:00 pm. The War Memorial Auditorium is located at 800 NE 8th St in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets to attend ProBoxTV’s The Contender Series in person at the War Memorial Auditorium are available from the ProBoxTV website or directly from Seat Geek. ProBoxTV is available in 100% of U.S. and Canadian households with broadband access, on a wide range of platforms and media partners, including ProBoxTV’s YouTube and YouTube Espanol Channels, Swerve TV Combat, Swerve Sports, Fubo TV, Fubo Sports YouTube Channel, Amazon, Google TV, LG Channels, Plex, Roku, SLING TV, Samsung, Tubi, Vizio, Xumo Play, DIRECTV, Free Live Sports, Lights Out Sports, Zeam, Pluto TV and TCL TVs.
