By Steve Kim
According manager, Steve Feder, his client Ray Beltran has been given his first assignment of 2017. Beltran will be part of the undercard to the ring return of WBO, WBC junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
"It's May 20th, it's going to be at the Prudential Center in New Jersey on the Terence Crawford card on HBO and we are just waiting for Top Rank to tell us who we're fighting," Feder advised by Boxingscene.con on Monday.
Beltran (32-7-1, 20 KOs) is coming off a dominant victory over Mason Menard on December 10th in Omaha, Nebraska, scoring a seventh round stoppage.
As for who Beltran will be paired with, Feder explained:
"Unfortunately a lot of the (lightweights) champions that we want to fight have either just fought or about to fight. There's not a lot of 135-pound champions available. Once again, Beltran wants to fight the best in the world and were hoping for at least a crack at somebody on this fight but it looks like it's going to be the fall before we get a chance to fight for the world title."
Recently the likes of Mikey Garcia and Robert Easter were successful in lightweight title fights and in the next several weeks Jorge Linares and Terry Flanagan defend their belts.
Currently, Beltran is rated fourth by the WBO.
"They're looking to hopefully turning this into a strong fight so we can use it as an interim title opportunity and that's what I'm working on with Top Rank," stated Feder. "I would love to see Ray get a chance to fight for an interim title and come around in the fall for a world title."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com
