Euri Cedeno could become the next talented fighter to come out of the Dominican Republic.
Cedeno will face Fabrizio Rubino tonight at the Wind Creek Events Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The six-round bout will take place on the undercard of the ShoBox: The New Generation card, but can be streamed live on the Abrams Boxing YouTube page (6:45 p.m. ET/ 3:45 p.m. PT).
The 23-year-old is promoted by Marshall Kauffman.
In his last bout on July 8, Ceneno (5-0, 5 knockouts), who resides in La Romana in the Dominican Republic, stopped William Townsel in a clash of unbeaten middleweights. The win over Townsel came less than five months after Cedeno stopped Adrian Perez in the third round.
Cedeno could follow in the footsteps of top fighters from the Dominican Republic, including middleweight Carlos Adames, junior lightweight titleholder Hector Garcia, junior welterweight Alberto Puello and unbeaten 105-pound fighter Erick Rosa.
For now, he faces Rubino, a fighter from Mainz, Germany, who is coming off a split-decision loss to Ibo Maier on June 24.
Manager Trifon Petrov believes Cedeno is more than ready to face top prospects in the middleweight division.
‘Euri is an excellent fighter and he’ll show it once again on Friday night,” Petrov told Boxingscene Thursday afternoon. Marshall Kauffman and I wholeheartedly believe that he’ll be the face of boxing in (the) near future.”
Cedeno has not fought past the third third round of any of his fights. He hopes to display his skill-set long enough before making a statement to those at 160 pounds.
“I am excited to be on another Showtime event,” Cedeno also told Boxingscene. “This is my second Showtime event (within) a month and I’m very thankful to my team for keeping me this busy. Rubino is a tough, durable fighter, but I guarantee another knockout (tonight).”
Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene since September 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing