Angelo Leo faces Eduardo Baez on April 24 ProBox card
Angelo Leo continues his march towards a world title belt in a second weight class.
Leo, now a featherweight contender, will face Eduardo Baez on April 24, ProBox TV’s Chris Glover confirmed to The Ring Tuesday. The 10-round bout will take place at the Whitesands (also known as the ProBox TV) Events Center in Plant City, Florida and will stream live on the ProBox TV application and YouTube channel (8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT).
“This is a banger of a fight,” Glover told The Ring. “Angelo can box and finish a fighter when he wants to. We saw that in his last fight. He is an absolute star and is never in a bad fight. Angelo wants to make a statement. I think he has more skills than (newly-crowned WBA world featherweight titleholder) Raymond Ford. His boxing IQ is higher than the opponents he faces.”
“Baez is a smaller guy, but comes forward. He is a game guy, an action fighter and he comes to win. Stylistically, this is a really great fight for ProBox TV.”
Leo (23-1, 11 knockouts), who lives and trains in Las Vegas, Nevada, knocked out Mike Plania in the third round of his last fight on January 31. In his previous fight on November 1, Leo stopped Nicolas Polanco in the ninth round.
Prior to his last two fights, the 29-year-old fought under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) banner.
In August 2020, Leo won the vacant WBO world junior featherweight title, defeating Tremaine Williams by unanimous decision. Leo would lose the world title belt almost six months later, dropping a decision to Stephen Fulton.
Leo also has victories over Cesar Juarez and Aaron Alameda.
Baez (23-5-2, 9 KOs), who is originally from Mexicali, Mexico and now resides in Calexico, California, last fought on December 16, stopping journeyman Genaro Velarde Rodriguez in the fifth round. Baez has won his last two bouts since losing to unbeaten prospect Jonathan Lopez on June 2.
The 28-year-old challenged then-WBO world featherweight titleholder Emanuel Navarrete in August 2022, losing by knockout in the sixth round. At the time of the stoppage, Baez was up on two of the judges’ scorecards.
In the co-feature, junior lightweight Jaycob Gomez Zayas (9-0-1, 6 KOs) of Caguas, Puerto Rico will square off against Jose Arellano (11-1, 6 KOs) of Aurora, Colorado in an eight-round bout.
Also in junior lightweight action, Dominic Valle (8-0, 6 KOs) of Lutz, Florida will face Mexico’s Angel Vazquez (12-1, 6 KOs) in an eight-round bout.
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]
