Joselito Velazquez is not letting one defeat define his pro career.

Velazquez will face Pablo Carrillo tonight at the Cancun Center in Cancun, Mexico. The 10-round flyweight bout will air live on Televisa (Canal 5) and on TUDN (11:00 local time/ 10 p.m. Mexico City).

At Thursday’s weigh-in, Velazquez weighed in at 109.6 pounds. Carrillo came in at 110.2 pounds.

Friday night will mark a homecoming of sorts for Velazquez (17-1-1, 12 knockouts), who grew up in the Cancun area. His fight against Carrillo will mark the first time in over six years that Velazquez will have fought there.

Velazquez, who resides in the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina, last fought on June 10 in Mexicali, Mexico, knocking out Juan Toscano at the end of the third round. Immediately after the knockout, a man later identified as Toscano’s older brother entered the ring and charged at Velazquez, assaulting him until security entered the ring to tackle and detain Toscano, who was arrested and charged with assault.

The 30-year-old Velazquez has won his last two fights since a unanimous decision loss to former world titleholder Cristofer Rosales on December 3 of last year.

“Carrillo will have to make for the best fight of his career, if he wants to beat me on my home turf,” said Velazquez at Wednesday’s press conference.

Velazquez represented Mexico at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and is managed by Frank Espinoza. Velazquez trains in San Diego with Eddy Reynoso, who also trains Ring magazine super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, two-division world titleholder Oscar Valdez, and unbeaten heavyweight Frank Sanchez.

Carrillo (28-9-2, 17 KOs), who resides in Barranquilla, Colombia, was stopped in the final moments of the last round at the hands of junior bantamweight contender Kosei Tanaka in his last bout on May 23.

The 35-year-old was unbeaten in his previous four bouts since a unanimous decision loss to Donnie Nietes in April 2021.

In the co-feature, Aaron Alameda, who challenged for the vacant WBC world junior featherweight title, will square off against hard-hitting and late-sub Adrian Robles in a 10-round bout.

Alameda (27-2, 15 KOs) stopped Josue Portales in the second round of his last bout on August 19 of last year in his hometown of Nogales, Mexico. The 30-year-old has won his last two fights since back-to-back defeats at the hands of Luis Nery and Angelo Leo within a nine-month span in 2020 and 2021. Alameda has recently been sparring Ring magazine junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada.

Robles, who resides in Tepic, Mexico, will be taking a major step-up in opposition against Alameda. According to Boxrec, which lists him at 5-0, 5 KOs, Robles last fought on June 4 of last year, knocking out Daniel Zaragoza Garcia in the fifth round.

Also taking place Friday night, unbeaten light heavyweight Junior Younan (18-0-1, 11 KOs) of Brooklyn, New York will face Mexico’s Ramses Agaton (22-16-3, 12 KOs) in an eight-round bout.

The card will be promoted by Oswaldo Kuchle, in association with Jose Gomez of Cancun Boxing and Boxing Time Promotions.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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