Patrick Teixeira is already eyeing future options ahead of his scheduled ring return.
The former WBO junior middleweight titlist is set to headline an August 27 show in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Teixeira will face Colombia’s Carlos Rivero (22-1-1, 12KOs) in a scheduled ten-round regional junior middleweight title fight.
With a win, the Brazilian southpaw would love to pick off a divisional young gun to ignite another title run.
“I’m happy to return to the ring on August 27th,” Teixeira told BoxingScene.com. “After this fight I want a fight outside Brazil. I have a lot of opponents I would like to face 154. Israil Madrimov, Liam Smith, Brian Mendoza, Sebastian Fundora, Erickson Lubin, Tony Harrison.
“The one I most want to face would be Xander Zayas.”
Teixeira (32-4, 23KOs) has not fought since a first-round knockout of Adrian Perez last November 26 in Sorocaba, Brazil. The 32-year-old from Sombrio—roughly 12 hours from his next fight destination in Sao Paulo—was due to fight July 8 but was forced to withdraw roughly a week prior due to a training camp injury.
The confidence-restoring win last December snapped a three-fight skid, including a February 2021 points loss to then-unbeaten Brian Castano which ended his WBO junior middleweight title reign. Teixeira won the interim WBO belt in a twelve-round win over an undefeated Carlos Adames in November 2019 and was upgraded to full champ just five days later, fittingly on his 29th birthday.
The loss to Castano was followed by a 14-month ring absence and a questionable disqualification loss to Paul Valenzuela last April 9 on the Ryan Garcia-Emmanuel Tagoe undercard in San Antonio. He took the bout after plans fell through for a clash with Russia’s Magomed Kurbanov due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Their rescheduled bout last July 9 saw Teixeira suffer an opening round knockdown en route to a ten-round, unanimous decision defeat.
Now back in the win column, Teixeira plans to make his next fight in Brazil the last one for a while. A road trip is welcomed for a fight with Zayas (16-0, 10KOs), the 20-year-old Puerto Rican prospect based out of South Florida. The logic applied by Teixeira is for him to earn a fight with the division’s bigger names—and also for Zayas to prove himself as a future star.
“Zayas should face a decent opponent,” insists Teixeira. “If he wants to prove to Puerto Rico that he is a real fighter like [Miguel] Cotto and [Felix “Tito”] Trinidad he should fight real fighters.
“It would be awesome to fight him in Puerto Rico, and show the public that he’s not a star.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox