By Ryan Burton
On June 30th unbeaten super lightweight prospect Alex Saucedo (27-0) will fulfill one of his dreams in the sport of boxing when he faces former title challenger Lenny Zuppavigna (37-3) at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.
The fight will be broadcast live on ESPN in chief support of the Gilberto Ramirez-Roamer Angulo main event.
The 23-year-old Saucedo was born in Meoqui, Chihuahua, Mexico but grew up in Oklahoma City. In 2015 he had the opportunity to fight in Meoqui and defeated Edgar Ortega via 3rd round knockout.
Now he gets the chance to fight where he has lived most of his life.
"I am very excited and motivated to go home and put on a show for everyone. It is going to be a great venue and a great event. I am hoping the whole city can come out and support. I am going to put the time in the gym and do the work so I can go and perform like I always do and get a good win," Saucedo told BoxingScene.com.
The Oklahoma City Thunder moved from Seattle in 2008 and is the only major sports franchise in the college football crazed state of Oklahoma. Top Rank hopes that Saucedo can become a regional draw similar to the way Terence Crawford has turned into a major ticket seller in Omaha, Nebraska.
Saucedo is very confident that the fans will turn out for his fight and that they will have a large attendance figure in his first fight at home.
"This is a huge thing for Oklahoma and for Oklahoma history. Like I said, I hope they can go out and show support so we can bring out even bigger shows and go on to bigger things," Saucedo explained.
Saucedo started training under the guidance of world class trainer Abel Sanchez in the fall of 2016 and has gone 5-0 with 3 knocks under his tutelage.
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