News reached The Ring that unbeaten super middleweight contender Erik Bazinyan will face former world title challenger Marcelo Esteban Coceres at the Montreal Casino, Canada on June 23.

Bazinyan, who kicked off his 2022 campaign with a ninth-round stoppage over Reinaldo Paniagua in March, will be facing his toughest opponent to date.

Coceres was unbeaten in his first 29 outings and was rewarded with a WBO title shot against Billy Joe Saunders in November 2019.

Although the Argentine fighter didn’t win, he was able to give Saunders a stern examination and was ahead on one of the scorecards before being stopped in the 11th round.

Coceres surprisingly lost to awkward southpaw Sebastian Papeschi (SD 10) in an off-night, after having previously beaten him.

However, in his last fight Coceres showed he still had something left, giving power-puncher Edgar Berlanga a difficult night’s work in October 2021. Coceres lost a 10-round unanimous decision but dropped Berlanga in Round 9 and was a danger throughout their meeting.

Coceres (30-3-1, 16 knockouts) is expected provide a good learning curve for Bazinyan (27-0, 21 KOs) that will give us a better understanding of what his ceiling is as a fighter.

The Eye of the Tiger event will also feature an eagerly anticipated rematch between Steven Butler and Brandon Brewer at middleweight, as well as rising junior middleweight Artem Oganesyan and savvy junior welterweight veteran Yves Ulysse Jr. appearing in separate outings against as yet unnamed opponents.

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