Sadam Ali is working his way back to the top of the welterweight division, where he believes he could be one fight away from facing the elite fighters in the division.

The welterweight contender has to get by Johan Perez Saturday night at the Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona.

The 10-round bout will headline a “Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN” telecast, that will air on tape-delay on ESPN2 at midnight/ 9 p.m. PT.

It has been 17 months since Ali suffered the first loss as a professional at the hands of Jessie Vargas. Both fighters were fighting for the vacant WBO welterweight title.

Ali (24-1, 14 knockouts) has since won his last two bouts, the most recent on January 28, when he knocked out Jorge Silva.

Ali is currently ranked No. 8 by the IBF.

Can the 28-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, repeat the same success he had when he faced Luis Carlos Abregu in November of 2014? An impressive performance over Perez may do that.

Perez (22-3-2, 15 KOs), Venezuela, is unbeaten in his last three fights, all against less than average opposition.

Perez has lost to Pablo Cesar Cano, Mauricio Herrera and Dmitry Mikhaylenko but has scored wins over Steve Forbes, Yoshihiro Kamegai and Paul Spadafora.

Welterweight Eddie Gomez (20-2, 11 KOs) will face Alejandro Barrera (28-3, 18 KOs) in an eight-round bout.

Middleweight Patrick Teixeira (26-1, 22 KOs) hopes to rebound from his loss to Curtis Stevens last year when he faces fringe contender Andrew Hernandez (19-5-1, 9 KOs) in an eight-round bout.

Daquan Arnett (15-1, 9 KOs) returns from 20-month hiatus to face Jorge Silva (22-13-2, 18 KOs) in an eight-round junior middleweight bout.

Unbeaten Pablo Rubio Jr. (9-0, 3 KOs), who is managed by NBA player Metta World Peace, will face David Perez (8-1, 4 KOs) in a six-round junior featherweight bout.

ESPN3.com will begin airing the Golden Boy card at 6:45 p.m. ET/ 3:45 p.m. PT.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV.com since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) 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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