Lou DiBella hadn’t heard anything about Tsendbaatar Erdenebat hurting Ryan Garcia in a recent sparring session until Garcia and Erdenebat made much of the boxing world aware of it on social media a few days ago.
DiBella believes it happened, however, because Erdenebat’s promoter has seen the viciousness with which the Mongolian southpaw throws body shots. Fans can see Erdenebat for themselves Thursday night on DAZN, which will stream the two-time Olympian’s eight-round junior lightweight fight against Mexican veteran Edy Valencia Mercado as part of DiBella’s long-running “Broadway Boxing” series.
The bout between Erdenebat (5-0, 3 KOs) and Mercado (20-9-6, 7 KOs, 1 NC) will be one of six fights DAZN will stream as part of a show set to start at 7:30 p.m. EDT from Sony Hall in New York’s Times Square.
“He’s a vicious, freakishly strong kid,” DiBella told BoxingScene.com. “He barely speaks English, but he’s very confident. He has swag. And he’s got huge balls. He wants to step up and fight everybody right now. He’s already becoming a gym legend. He trains at Manny Robles’ gym in [Southern] California. There’s a buzz about him on the California boxing scene because of the way he’s been smashing people around in the gyms.”
Erdenebat revealed during a video he released Monday on his social media platforms that he hurt Garcia with a body shot while sparring for his high-profile fight against Gervonta Davis. Garcia, whom Davis knocked out with a body shot in the seventh round, accused Erdenebat of being the “mole” in his camp to whom Davis and his team members referred before their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The 26-year-old Erdenebat denied that he divulged any inside information to Davis or his team. Nevertheless, this is by far the most attention Erdenebat has received since he turned pro in September 2018.
Erdenebat, who goes by the nickname “Chinggis Khan,” lost to eventual silver medalist Shakur Stevenson in the bantamweight quarterfinals at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He later lost to eventual featherweight gold medalist Albert Batyrgaziev at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.
Erdenebat hasn’t made much progress as a pro, but DiBella senses that is about to change.
“The kid throws vicious body shots,” DiBella said. “And he can box a little bit. Offensively, he’s a terror. You’re gonna see it. It’s gonna be a treat for people to see this kid. And look, right now, for all of us that don’t have exclusivity with a streaming service or a network, getting our prospects seen is very, very hard. And if DAZN is making that easier, it’s doing a service for boxing by putting fighters on that deserve to be there.”
The 32-year-old Mercado has lost three of his past four fights, but he has not been knocked out during his nine-year pro career.
“He went the distance with Jessie Magdaleno [four fights ago],” DiBella said. “So, it’s gonna be very interesting to see if [Erdenebat] can hurt him. This guy is not a stooge that he’s fighting. It’s a lot more than your average 5-0 guy ever fights. The guy he’s fighting has never been knocked out. I wanna see how [Erdenebat] looks against him.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.