Fresno, California, might be an agricultural hub of the United States, but it has also provided boxing fans with entertaining bouts in the past 10 years.
On Saturday, ProBox TV returns to the Save Mart Center in Fresno with a night of action, including lightweight Justin Pauldo taking on Nike Theran, and junior lightweight contender Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov facing Cristian Cruz Chacon.
In the buildup to the upcoming fight week, BoxingScene looked back at the past 10 years of boxing in Fresno. Rick Mirigian has helped bring all of the events to Fresno in some capacity in the last 10 years, most notably serving as the manager for Vergil Ortiz Jnr and the Central Valley’s own Jose Ramirez, as well as other fighters. BoxingScene got Mirigan’s insight into some of the memorable nights in the city’s boxing history.
Fights in Lemoore, California, a town outside of Fresno, were not counted for this list.
8. Andy Ruiz Jnr-Kevin Johnson, July 7, 2018
The heavyweight Ruiz had been featured on four cards in the Central Valley before fighting Johnson. This one has a special place in history. Ruiz won a 10-round unanimous decision over Johnson. He went on to stop Alexander Dimitrenko, then 11 months after fighting in Fresno, he knocked out Anthony Joshua in a legendary upset.
This card was headlined by welterweight Egidijus Kavaliauskas winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Juan Carlos Abreu after Jose Ramirez’s bout against Danny O’Connor was called off. Top Rank lightweight Gabriel Flores Jnr was also featured on this undercard.
“That was insane,” Mirigian said. “I promoted the whole fight around Jose, and his opponent had issues at the weigh-in. I thought, ‘What do we do now?’ Little did we know the first Mexican heavyweight world champion to be would fight on the card in our city…"
7. Jose Ramirez-Johnny Garcia, December 5, 2015
Home hero Ramirez got dropped by the hard-hitting Garcia and almost saw his run come to an end. Instead, he managed to battle back and win a 10-round unanimous decision in an entertaining fight. It also set the stage for other local fighters, such as featherweight Guy Robb, who got an undercard win, and San Jose, California’s Andy Vences, who stopped Manuel Rey Rojas in two rounds. Vences is now the head coach of Jose Contreras, who makes his debut on Saturday night.
“That one was scary at the time,” Mirigian told BoxingScene. “Jose suffered a flash knockdown for the first time.”
6. Jerwin Ancajas-Jonas Sultan, May 26, 2018
Somehow this junior bantamweight title bout between two Filipino fighters ended up in Fresno, with Ancajas winning via unanimous decision. Junior bantamweight Khalid Yafai would get a stoppage win on the undercard over David Carmona. One of the storylines of fight week was that journeyman boxer Manuel Manzo proved to be a big ticket seller for the fight. Manzo got a win on the evening, improving to 3-6-1 (1 KO), and he received some of the loudest cheers of the night.
“I saw Eddie Hearn walking around backstage,” Mirigian said. “I'm like, 'Your first trip here and it is the first time I meet you in Fresno of all places?’ He actually came to the fight, and then not long after, we made Ramirez-Maurice Hooker.”
5. Quilisto “Kilo the Kid” Madera-Joe Louie Lopez, December 2, 2016
Jose Ramirez was set for a step-up bout, but it fell apart. Ramirez knocked out Issouf Kinda in six rounds as the main event, yet all eyes were on the undercard grudge match between Madera of Stockton, California, who had Fresno ties, taking on Lopez of Fresno. The two had contrasting personalities, and they met at a catchweight between middleweight and super middleweight.
The two fighters spilled their bad blood over a violent six-round bout that was even replayed nationally as a notable fight of the year on “Solo Boxeo.” In the end, Madera would win by unanimous decision, but both fighters left a lot in the ring for this fight, both physically and emotionally.
“This was my favorite of all the fights I promoted,” Mirigian said. “It was the first fight I actually built up, and it was nominated for ‘Fight of the Year’ that year.”
4. Jamel Herring-Lamont Roach Jnr, November 9, 2019
This card saw Herring win a close unanimous decision over Roach to retain his WBO junior lightweight title. The bout was seen as a 50-50 fight, which is hard to believe in hindsight given how Roach went on to become a star in boxing after his fight with Gervonta Davis earlier this year.
The card also featured future unified middleweight titleholder Janibek Alimkhanuly. It also showed how much Top Rank had invested in Fresno; they ended the decade with a fight card there that didn’t include a fighter from Fresno.
“This was special to me because Herring was Jose’s teammate in the Olympics, he was always a good person, and I watched him in the amateurs,” Mirigian said. “Nine thousand people later, the show made history as Jamel came to the ring in a Marine Humvee escorted by 300 Marines I got from Camp Pendleton and a fireworks show. I didn’t sleep for a month.”
3. Mikey Garcia-Sandor Martin, October 16, 2021
Martin would outbox Garcia, winning a majority decision. It would be Garcia’s last career bout, which took place at Chukchansi Park, where the Triple-A baseball team, the Fresno Grizzlies, play. Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, now a pound-for-pound star, fought on the undercard, as did super middleweight contender Diego Pacheco.
Two notable fighters will return to action on this week’s card who fought on that October 2021 show. Elwin Soto lost his junior flyweight title to Jonathan Gonzalez, and lightweight Charlie Sheehy made his professional debut in the first bout of the evening. On Saturday, Soto will face Erik Badillo, who fought and won in Fresno this past July, and Sheehy will face D’Angelo Keyes.
“After Mikey was fighting [Errol] Spence and those big names and making career-high money, I always wondered what it would be like to promote an event with him,” Mirigian said. “Then Eddie Hearn called me and said, ‘You would have 30 days to promote the Garcia fight, can you do it?’....the rest was history! We had 100 farm workers walk Mikey to the ring as he rode in a John Deere tractor and filled the place on 30 days’ notice.”
2. Jose Ramirez-Mike Reed, November 11, 2017
“The fight against Mike Reed was the first that gave me that ‘chill’ of all the events,” Mirigian said. “The way the crowd roared was equal to or louder than any fight I have ever been to in history.”
Ramirez walked out to cheers that sounded like a jet engine on this card. He rewarded them by putting up his best performance in Fresno, against his toughest opponent to date. Reed had called out Ramirez, and Ramirez took him up on his offer to fight.
Ramirez trapped Reed on the ropes and stopped him in the second round, going from a top regional act to one of the best junior welterweights in the world that evening. The co-feature saw Artur Beterbiev stop Enrico Koelling in the 12th and final round to become the IBF light heavyweight titleholder. He’d keep that belt all the way until this year, when he lost it and his perfect record to Dmitry Bivol.
1. Jose Ramirez-Jose Zepeda, February 10, 2019.
Tricky southpaw Zepeda gave Ramirez plenty of issues in this bout, to the point that some felt he won. But the hometown fighter got the nod in a hard-fought majority decision. The fight, which Mirigian was proud to fill the building with 16,000 fans for, also had special meaning for him.
“It was the highest attended and toughest fight for Jose at that point,” Mirigian said. “It was the fight to KO Cancer. The bout raised a ton of money and went viral on social media. It was also the most meaningful. I did that fight for my mom.”
