By Keith Idec
Floyd Mayweather wanted to know who he was.
That’s how impressed boxing’s longtime pound-for-pound king was when he watched Andres Cortes spar against eventual 130-pound champion Gervonta Davis a few years ago at Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas. Mayweather had just signed Davis to a promotional contract and noticed that this amateur fighter – unknown, at least to him – gave Davis everything that the powerful southpaw could handle during that particular sparring session.
After watching Cortes succeed in a subsequent sparring encounter with another Mayweather Promotions fighter, Mayweather and his company’s CEO, Leonard Ellerbe, signed Cortes to a promotional contract. On Friday night, Mayweather, Ellerbe and everyone else involved in Cortes’ career expect him to make a similar impact on the unknowing that tune in to watch the unbeaten junior lightweight’s first televised fight.
His opponent, Jahmal Dyer, is from Baltimore, but that’s about all Dyer has in common with Davis, the WBA’s “super” 130-pound champion. For Cortes, this eight-round fight is more about “what” than “who,” because he feels this will be his first of many televised fights. The 21-year-old Cortes (10-0, 6 KOs) and Dyer (9-1, 5 KOs) will meet in the opener of a “ShoBox: The New Generation” tripleheader that Showtime will broadcast from Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall in Las Vegas, Cortes’ hometown.
“It means a lot to me, for my career and what I’ve been working for all my life,” Cortes told BoxingScene.com. “It’s really all or nothing. I’m just ready to knock this boy out. … People will know who I am after Friday night.”
People are much more aware at this moment of three emerging, elite lightweights Cortes fought late in his amateur career – Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney and Karlos Balderas.
Cortes defeated Lopez in two of their three amateur matches. Las Vegas’ Lopez (12-0, 10 KOs) has rapidly developed into a legitimate lightweight contender and appears on track for a pay-per-view fight against WBA “super” 135-pound champion Vasiliy Lomachenko sometime early in 2020.
Las Vegas’ Haney (21-0, 13 KOs) edged Cortes, 2-1, in the 132-pound final at the 2015 U.S. Youth National Championships. Haney also seems headed for a 135-pound title shot sooner rather than later.
Balderas beat Cortes, 2-1, at the National PAL Championships in 2014, but not before Cortes dropped Balderas (7-0, 6 KOs). Like Cortes, Balderas, of Santa Maria, California, has been brought along at a slower pace than Lopez and Haney.
“I don’t really compare myself to them,” Cortes said. “I know what they’re doing. They’re doing great. My respect to them. But I don’t compare myself to them. I truly believe that I’m a lot better than them. Put me up there with any prospect, you know, people really will tell you that I’m a lot better. But I respect all of them. I don’t talk bad about no one. I just fight the fights.
“Time will tell. I’m still young, so I’m not too worried about that. I’m taking my career step by step, worrying about my path. And, you know, they’ve got their own path. Eventually, we will meet up. As far as my own career, I’m just looking forward to putting on a great show on Friday night.”
Showtime’s tripleheader Friday night is set to start at 10 p.m. ET.
It’ll also include a 10-rounder between junior lightweight prospect Xavier Martinez (13-0, 9 KOs), of Sacramento, California, and the Philippines’ John Moralde (21-2, 11 KOs). In the 10-round main event, featherweight prospect Angelo Leo (16-0, 8 KOs), of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is set to face Filipino veteran Neil Tabanao (17-4, 11 KOs).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
