By Jake Donovan
Darleys Perez had no regrets following his June ‘13 narrow points loss to Yuriorkis Gamboa, which aired live on HBO. An unbeaten lightweight at the time, Perez offered a respectable account of himself, but fell prey to a couple of calls—a questionable knockdown in the opening round and then a no-call when Gamboa appeared to go down in round 11—to come up short in their interim title fight.
Lending credence to the old adage that losses are meant to be taken as learning experiences, the 31-year old from Colombia has the look of a different fighter during his current three-fight win streak. He plans to show off the new and improved version this Friday in the season premiere of ESPN2 Friday Night Fights, as he headlines versus Jonathan Maicelo in a 12-round lightweight bout at Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California.
“I’m really excited for this fight, to get the big exposure on ESPN2,” says Perez (31-1, 20KOs), whose last three starts took place outside of the realm of U.S. television. “There is a lot on the line in this fight. I expect a tough challenge from Maicelo, but also expect to win and move forward in the lightweight division.”
Along with a three-fight win streak, Perez is armed with a WBA interim title. He won the belt on the road, scoring a convincing win over unbeaten Argenis Lopez last June in Dominican Republic, as part of the WBA’s annual “KO Drugs” festival. The title claim was followed up by perhaps his most notable win to date, stopping Jaider Parra with a body shot in six rounds last October at home in Colombia.
Friday’s bout marks his first stateside appearance since 2012, having regularly fought in California after signing a co-promotional pact with Thompson Boxing and Gary Shaw Productions one year prior. There could be more to come, with all of the current lightweight titlists either from the U.S., or whose lead promoters are based in the states.
“Obviously I don’t want to look past Jonathan Maicelo, who’s a very good boxer and gives a lot of fighters trouble. But there has been talk of my moving towards a fight with (full WBA titlist) Richar Abril down the road,” Perez notes, using such an opportunity to look impressive on Friday. “I’d love to fight him or any of the other champs. I want this fight to be the start of a regular routing where I get national exposure.”
Proof of his primary focus being on Maicelo can be found in the manner in which he prepared for this fight. Normally dividing his time between Colombia and California, Perez scouted his opponent to the point of traveling to where he could find the best comparable fighters to ready himself for anything his Peruvian challenger has to offer.
“We chose to come to Panama for the sparring,” Perez notes. “Jonathan Maicelo is a boxer that likes to move around a lot and he's very explosive. He never stays in one place for very long. He's always moving his head and keeps a tight guard.
“We got word that we could find boxers like that in various divisions over in Panama, so we made the switch. As a result, we got a lot of quality sparring.”
Perez hopes that with the hard work put in comes a performance so convincing that his name immediately comes to mind when the discussing the best lightweights in the world.
“This division is definitely there for the taking,” Perez believes. “Terence Crawford is considered the man to beat right now, but he might be moving up. I’d love to fight him while he’s still at lightweight, but if not then I’ll just look for a unification fight with the other champions.
“Right now all of my energy and focus is on Friday night. This fight, this performance determines where I go in the future, so it needs to be my very best.”
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox