The events of Sunday night have made the lightweight division the early leader for best weight class in the still-forming Zuffa Boxing stable.
The main event unanimous decision triumph by Las Vegas’ own Andres Cortes over the Dominican Republic’s Eridson Garcia, and former featherweight titleholder Mark Magsayo’s TKO of recent title challenger Feargal McCrory, give Zuffa a promising set of 135lbs fighters to match against each other.
However, an official involved in Zuffa’s plotting of the fighters’ next moves tells BoxingScene not to expect a lightweight bout for the new Zuffa belt next.
While Zuffa did move former IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia right into a title fight upon his signing – he cruised to a unanimous decision victory over Brandon Glanton on March 8 – the plan is different with the lightweights.
That cast includes former junior welterweight titleholder Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela, 15-3 (9 KOs), who won his Zuffa debut February 1 versus Diego Torres Nunez on the second Zuffa Boxing card.
Zuffa has also signed Dominican lightweight Edwin De Los Santos, 17-2 (15 KOs), who knocked out Valenzuela in the third round of their 2022 meeting and then gave Shakur Stevenson a complicated, dull test in 2023.
With the abundance of lightweights, Zuffa is content to let the action play out before jumping right into a bout for the belt, the official said.
Cortes, now 25-0 (13 KOs), said after his bout that he was up for whoever arrived next, mentioning both Valenzuela and Magsayo, now 29-2 (19 KOs), the Philippines product who leaned into his quickness and punching power to finish McCrory in the fifth round (by his own corner’s stoppage) Sunday.
Zuffa Boxing will return May 10 at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas when middleweights Shane Mosley Jnr and Serhii Bohachuk will meet in the main event.
