Jesus Cuellar to face Jonathan Oquendo

Oct

With Vasyl Lomachenko, Gary Russell Jr., Leo Santa Cruz and Lee Selby each holding a portion of the featherweight championship, Jesus Cuellar is eager and determined to get into the unification mix.

Cuellar will face Jonathan Oquendo on Dec. 5 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The bout will precede the showdown between middleweights Daniel Jacobs and Peter Quillin.

Showtime will televise both fights, beginning at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT.

Cuellar, who hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina, has won his last 10 consecutive bouts. In his last bout on June 6, Cuellar knocked out Vic Darchinyan in the eighth round in Carson, Calif.

The 28-year-old Cuellar (27-1, 21 knockouts) trained over the last two years in Oxnard, Calif. with trainer Robert Garcia but is now training in the Los Angeles suburb of Marina Del Rey.

“I am glad to be defending my world title once again this year against a solid fighter like Jonathan Oquendo,” said Cuellar, who suffered his only defeat of his career to Oscar Escandon in Oct. of 2011. “Oquendo comes forward all the time, so it will be a war.”

Oquendo (26-4, 16 KOs) is coming off an impressive, majority decision win over former featherweight titleholder Jhonny Gonzalez on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas, Nev.

The fighter from Vega Alta, Puerto Rico has won four of his last five bouts with the only blemish being a decision loss to Abner Mares in July of last year.

“I’m very happy about this opportunity because it is my first world title fight,” said Oquendo. “I’m going to fight in New York for the first time in my career with the support of all Puerto Ricans there. I’m training hard to become the next world champion for Puerto Rico.”

[Editor’s note: THE RING only recognizes Leo Santa Cruz as WBA titleholder.]

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since Oct. of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing