'Boxeo Telemundo' 2015 Season Begins March 13

By Jake Donovan

A lot of the blanks still need to be filled in – like who will fight, and where. That said, the formula that has worked so well for Telemundo’s boxing series (Boxeo Telemundo) for the past two years - three separate blocks of four consecutive Fridays of boxing - will carry over into 2015, beginning with the season premiere on Friday, March 13. 

The series will continue to rotate between locations, appearing twice each in Mexico and Florida during each four-weekend season. A new venue has been added to the mix, with the March 27 edition due to take place at the Agri-Turner Center in Arcadia, Florida. 

Telemundo traditionally ran boxing on one Friday per month before switching in 2013 to the present format of three four-Friday seasons. 

Given the ratings spike that came with the 2014 season, it was a no-brainer to return to the same scheduling structure in the upcoming year. Highlights from the past 12 months include the super flyweight tournament staged during the summer and fall, capped by Daniel Lozano’s knockout win over Jonathan Vidal in October. 

Lozano is now in line to challenge newly crowned super flyweight titlist – and BoxingScene.com 2014 Fighter of the Year – Naoya Inoue at some point in 2015. 

Vidal wound up on the losing end of the finals, but made history for the network in the win that helped him reach that point. The diminutive Boricua scored an 8th round knockout of Juan Kantun in the main event of the July 18 edition, which wound up as the most watched fight in the network’s history. The bout was also highest-rated fight on any network that weekend, specifically beating out ESPN2 Friday Night Fights and Fox Sports 1’s ‘Golden Boy Live’ in head-to-head battles. 

“2014 was one of my most rewarding as a promoter, especially with the success of Boxeo Telemundo,” comments Felix ‘Tutico’ Zabala, Jr., whose All Star Boxing, Inc. promotional company is the series’ primary content provider. His 2014 run also saw the Florida promoter join his famed father in the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame. “Telemundo made changes (in 2013), and the series has continued to flourish under the new format. We’re going to come back even stronger in 2015.”

The announced dates for the 2015 season are as follows:

Spring Season - March 13, March 20, March 27, April 3

Summer Season – July 17, July 24, July 31, August 7

Fall Season – October 2, October 9, October 16, October 23