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Diego De La Hoya faces Erik Ruiz in ‘Golden Boy on ESPN’ headliner

Photo by Naoki Fukuda
Fighters Network
03
Apr

Unbeaten junior featherweight contender Diego De La Hoya will face Erik Ruiz on May 18 at Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona, Golden Boy Promotions announced on Monday.

The scheduled 10-round fight, which will top a ‘Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN’ broadcast, will air live on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.

De La Hoya (17-0, with nine knockouts), THE RING’s No. 7-rated junior featherweight who is managed by Joel De La Hoya, was scheduled to fight Feb. 25 on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto-James Kirkland fight in Arlington, Texas. The card fell through when Kirkland pulled out of the fight in early February due to a fractured nose suffered during training.

The 22-year-old former amateur standout from Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, returned to the ring on March 11 in Verona, N.Y., winning a one-sided decision over veteran Roberto Pucheta.



De La Hoya’s best win as a pro came on September 17, when he won a 10-round unanimous decision over fringe contender Luis Orlando Del Valle on the Canelo Alvarez-Liam Smith undercard in Arlington, Texas. The younger cousin of Oscar De La Hoya, he is ranked among the top 10 in all three of boxing’s major sanctioning bodies.

Ruiz (16-6-1, with 6 KOs), a crafty young veteran, also fought on March 11, losing a 10-round decision to former 122-pound titleholder Rico Ramos in Las Vegas.

Ruiz, who resides in the boxing hotbed of Oxnard, California, has faced and had success against boxers who fight under the Golden Boy Promotions banner. Ruiz won an eight-round split decision over Roy Tapia in November of 2015 and fought to a 10-round split decision against Horacio Garcia on May 6, a fight many thought Ruiz did enough to win.

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

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