Alejandro Paulino is going about his pro career as a marathon rather than a race.

The unbeaten Paulino will face Estivan Falcao Saturday night at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island. The eight-round bout will headline a CES Boxing card.

At Friday’s weigh-in, Paulino weighed in at 134 pounds. Falcao came in at 137 pounds.

Paulino (16-0, 13 knockouts), who is originally from the Dominican Republic and now resides in nearby New London, Connecticut, will face a fighter in Falcao who has faced solid opposition with mixed results. Manager Roland Estrada believes Falcao is the perfect opponent to see where Paulino is at this point of his pro career.

“The one fight that I watched of the Falcao kid was when he pulled off a major upset,” Estrada told The Ring Thursday. “He comes to fight and is a decent fighter. He had a solid amateur background like his brothers. It’s going to be a good test and a good fight for Alejandro. I think if Alejandro fights to his potential, I think he can stop Falcao.”

The 25-year-old Paulino has been very busy since turning pro in May 2021. After fighting five times in 2022, Paulino fought four times last year.

In his last bout on February 3, Paulino, who is promoted by Jimmy Burchfield, defeated D’Angelo Keyes by unanimous decision. The victory over Keyes snapped a string of four knockout victories.

Estrada has been a strong advocate of keeping Paulino active, further developing his skill-set and satisfying Paulino’s wishes of fighting often.

“Alejandro likes to fight a lot,” said Estrada. “He’s not one of these kids where they think they can make $10,000 a fight. Alejandro is the type where he was willing to fight for free earlier in his career. In a way, that was kind of true. We would fight in small gyms with no fans. We’ve kept him busy than having him fight just twice a year.

“We’re taking baby steps with each fight. Every fight will be a little harder than the previous one. I’ll decide when we can take that difficult step. People forget that Alejandro has been a pro for less than three years. He’s getting better, but he needs more seasoning. His last fight was scheduled for eight rounds, and so is this one. I’ll decide when he’s 100 percent to take that next step up in his career.”

Falcao (13-3, 7 KOs), who resides in Sao Paulo, Brazil, lost to top prospect Ashton Sylve in his last bout on February 2. Prior to the loss to Sylve, within a three-month span last year, Falcao stopped former unbeaten prospect Djamel Dahou and defeated once-beaten James Bernadin by unanimous decision.

The 27-year-old also has decision losses to Jeremy Hill and Nahir Albright.

Also on the CES Boxing card, lightweight Kevin Walsh (11-0, 5 KOs) of Brockton, Massachusetts will square off against Matt Doherty (9-8-1, 5 KOs) of Danvers, Massachusetts in an eight-round fight.

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]
Follow @FSalazarBoxing

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