Jonathan Oquendo has literally grown older waiting on a promised title shot, to the point where coming out with nothing to show for it was never going to be an option.
The squat junior lightweight contender from Vega Alta, Puerto Rico has seen two separate dates with reigning WBO titlist Jamel Herring fall prey to COVID-19, having celebrated his 37th birthday while waiting on a third try at a first fight. The two were due to collide on July 2 live on ESPN from MGM Grand Conference Center (The Bubble) in Las Vegas, only to suffer a delay prior to both parties breaking camp after Herring tested positive for coronavirus.
A rescheduled fight date of July 14 made it all the way to the morning of the weigh-in, when the fight was once again scratched after Herring (21-2, 10KOs) produced the equivalent of a false positive. It meant heading back home from Las Vegas for Oquendo, where he learned that talks had surfaced of title fight plans being scrapped altogether.
There was a brief period of consideration for Herring to instead enter a non-title fight before entering a high-profile showdown versus former two-division champion Carl Frampton later this year.
“I’m not gonna lie; I was a little disappointed when I heard he wanted to move on,” Oquendo told BoxingScene.com.
Such talks proved to be nothing but that, as cooler heads prevailed in getting the fight scheduled for a third time. The two will now meet on September 5, once again at The Bubble in an ESPN+ headlining act. It took a little more than simply allowing the honor system to play out, but with Oquendo’s team sitting down with Top Rank, Herring’s promoter to ensure that the right thing was done in the end.
“Everything went smooth and cordial between companies,” Bryan Pérez, executive director of Promociones Miguel Cotto—Oquendo’s co-promoter along with Golden Boy Promotions—informed BoxingScene.com. “It came up and we discussed it calmly. The idea was to keep the fight on. We made the decision to make the fight happen. Everyone did their part and Jonathan is getting his title shot.”
The fight marks the first shot at a full title for Oquendo, a 16-year pro whose lone other appearance on this stage was in a 12-round loss to Jesus Cuellar for a secondary featherweight title in December 2015. The opportunity came on the heels of arguably his career-best win, a 10-round decision over former 130-pound titlist Jhonny Gonzalez three months prior.
Oquendo has won five of his last six starts since the loss to Cuellar. His lone defeat within that stretch came in a 10-round decision to unbeaten Lamont Roach, who went on to challenge Herring for the title, dropping a hard-fought decision to the Coram, New York-bred southpaw last November.
Five days after Herring’s win over Roach came Oquendo’s most recent ring appearance, a 10-round shutout of veteran trialhorse Charles Huerta. The feat had as much to do with his being selected for this opportunity as does his physical dimensions. At 5’4, Oquendo poses a similarly-sized style matchup to that of Belfast’s Frampton whom Herring was supposed to face in June prior to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
A fight date has been penciled in for mid-November in Las Vega, though Oquendo can have plenty to say about that. At the very least, he is given the chance to disrupt those plans—something that was considered to have no longer been in the cards.
“I just stayed composed,” Oquendo said in waiting out the process to secure his title fight. “I kept both feet on the ground, continued to train and put my faith in God’s hands that everything would work out the way it was supposed to.
“Now here we are with the fight happening on September 5. I can’t ask for anything more.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
