The third “BoxeoEstrellaTV” card unfolds on Friday night, and it’s becoming pretty clear what the identity of the series, a once-a-month fight night, will look like.

Estrella Media, a Spanish-language media company in the U.S., presents on Friday (May 28) a two-hour fight broadcast live from Mexico City.

The action kicks off at 10 PM ET.

Hungry athletes, who want to make an impact so they can accelerate their profiles and then secure higher profile fights will be invited to fill up the cards, according to Ricardo Maldonado Jr., of Producciones Deportivas, who’ll be putting the shows together.

He iterated and reiterated to me that the main event, light flyweight Carlos Antonio Canizales against Esteban Bermudez at Foro Viena, will play out as a fan-friendly rumble.

The promoter Maldonado took part in a recent Zoom with Ivan Stoilkovich, executive VP of programming at Estrella, and Tag Garson, senior VP of properties at Wasserman Media Group, the sports marketing firm that reps Maldonado.

Maldonado told Ring that he wants to develop Latin American talent in Mexico, Central America and South America. They will trot out the talents of some boxers that haven’t been discovered by Spanish-speakers in the States…yet.

Stoilkovich said that Estrella has been expanding distribution and growing their digital offerings. “Our audience is 80 percent Mexican, we feel sports is a vital part for that audience, and nothing could be more ingrained than boxing, the culture, the pride,” he said. People are used to seeing variety and entertainment on Estrella, and boxing, he said, seems like a no brainer addition to their mix.

And will there be an English language feed? “As of right now, just Spanish language,” Ivan said. He thinks the action will be able to speak for itself, if you don’t know Spanish, like me, sadly.

Viewers can rest assured they will be seeing plenty of “Oh, wow!” moments, some jaw dropping tradefests with a climactic result, he declared.

Regarding the main event on show No. 3–it pits the Venezuelan Canizales (22-0-1 with 17 KOs), who holds a WBA crown, and is favored, against a Mexican, Bermudez.

Maldonado has a handle on what’s going to be going through the mind of Nezahualcóyotl resident Bermudez (13-3-2). “It’s going to be a war! Bermudez is going to fight in his own house, gonna fight for the people who are rooting for him, so I’m sure it’s going to be a war. And that’s what I like to put on, good fights, even fights.” Fight fans will pick up on the level of hunger exhibited by fighters on these cards, he promised.

Canizales has shown a certain grit, with his willingness to be a road dog, baring fangs against Reiya Konishi in Japan, where he grabbed a vacant strap, Bin Lu in Malaysia and Sho Kimura in China. That UD12 win for Canizales over Sho went down in May of 2019, so we will see if rust affects his timing and rhythm in Mexico.

You may be more likely to get back and forth rumbles on, say, this series, rather than on those “higher stakes” cards. More money often times doesn’t equal more action, too many fighters start losing an edge when they fight not to lose, to not get knocked out, and they no longer possess some of that urgent fire that fueled them on the way up.

Fighters on these Estrella cards are craving more notoriety, fighting on bigger platforms and stages and Maldonado assures me that they will work their asses off to justify their place on the cards. “They just need the exposure,” he said.

“I’m going to tell you, we’re going to develop the next boxing star in Mexico,” he continued.

Maldonado said he’d be happy to steer away some from placing excess importance of belts. It’s about the fighters and the fights, not the belts. There’s too much focus, he believes, on the trinkets, overall.

He said that 108 pounder Cristian Gonzalez (12-1; from Tultitlan, Mexican) aka El Chicharito, is one to watch, and that viewers who saw him get the W in the series debut March 26 in Mexico City will be wanting to follow his progress. Also, Maldonado likes the “heavy, heavy hitter” Diego Carmona, who has a 9-1 mark, from Mexico City, Mexico, who had his hand raised on the April 30 card. Colombian featherweight Miguel Marriaga felled Mexican Jorge “Chícharo” García in round six of the April “BoxeoEstrella” main event, for the record.

Having fans in the building will make the atmosphere that much more festive; about 150 folks will be let in to watch the fists flying, Maldonado said, and this will be the first time this year that his crew will be able to set up shop in front of patrons.

Tag Garson, senior VP of properties at Wasserman Media Group, the sports marketing firm that reps Maldonado and his efforts as a fight promoter, told Ring that he knows Estrella is keen to grow the series and he’s excited about the potential of the partnership.

You can mark your calendars now, here are the fight nights moving forward: May 28, June 25, July 30, August 27, September 24, October 29, November 26, and December 31 on EstrellaTV. Remember, it’s the last Friday of the month.