Jaime Arboleda has been near the top of the competitive junior lightweight division. Despite a few setbacks, Arboleda is eager to make another run to get back amongst the elite of the division.

Arboleda faces a tough challenge tomorrow night when he faces Nicolas Polanco at the Centro de Convenciones Vasco Nuñez de Balboa in Bella Vista, Panama. The 10-round bout will headline a three-bout telecast on TyC Sports (8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT).

It will be another homecoming of sorts for Arboleda as his last bout also took place in Bella Vista, a suburb of Panama City. Arboleda was born and raised in Curundu, not far from Bella Vista.

Arboleda (17-2, 14 knockouts), who now resides in Miami, Florida, stopped four-time world title challenger Jonathan Barros in round 4 of his last bout on August 14. The victory over Barros took place over eight months after he was stopped by unbeaten contender Chris Colbert.

Prior to the loss to Colbert, the 27-year-old had won his previous six fights, including wins over Jayson Velez and Victor Betancourt.

Sampson Lewkowicz, who promotes Arboleda, is confident Arboleda can make a statement at the expense of Polanco and can be a legit contender should he continue winning.

“This is a great fight for Jaime,” Lewkowicz told The Ring Wednesday afternoon. “It’s a tough challenge for him, but these are the fights he needs to win so he could climb the rankings in the division.”

Polanco (20-1-1, 11 KOs), who resides in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, defeated Marco Acevedo by majority decision on December 8. The fight was a rematch from their first clash on June 21, which was a split-decision draw.

The 32-year-old is unbeaten in his last four bouts since suffering the only loss of his career in September 2017 at the hands of Javier Fortuna.

Unbeaten junior welterweight Hugo Roldan of La Banda, Argentina will square off against Colombia’s German del Castillo (10-1-2, 7 KOs) in a 10-round bout.

Roldan (20-0-1, 7 KOs) has won his last three fights, all by unanimous decision. He will be fighting for the second time as a pro outside Argentina.

In the opening bout of the telecast, flyweight Gabriela Fundora (4-0 1 NC, 2 KOs) of Coachella, California will face Panama’s Nathaly Delgado (8-4-1, 3 KOs) in a 10-round bout. Fundora, who is also promoted by Lewkowicz, is the younger sister of junior middleweight contender Sebastian Fundora.

Lewkowicz also told The Ring that 12 amateur fights will take place on Friday’s card, which will be a co-promotion between Sampson Boxing, Paco Presents, Best Box, and Tello-Box. The amateur portion of the card, which will begin at 5 p.m. local time, is called ‘Sembrando Campeones’ (which is Spanish for ‘Sowing Champions’).

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 by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing