By Ian S Palmer
The Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) series returns this Saturday, December 12th from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas as undefeated Omar Figueroa Jr. takes on fellow former lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco in a 12-round junior welterweight bout. The 25-year-old Figueroa will enter the ring with a near-perfect record of 25-0-1 with 18 Kos to his name while the 29-year-old DeMarco is 31-5-1 with 23 Kos. The fight card can be seen live in Canada and the U.S. on the full NBC network. Both boxers have decent power as Figueroa has a knockout ratio of 69 percent while DeMarco’s currently stands at 62 per cent.
DeMarco of Los Mochis, Mexico is a southpaw and the bigger man when it comes to height since he stands 5-feet-10-inches tall and Figueroa of Texas is just over 5-foot-7. However, Figueroa has the reach advantage at 73 inches to 71. DeMarco, a former WBC Lightweight champ, turned pro back in 2004 and has fought 198 rounds since then. He’s beaten the likes of John Molina, Jorge Linares, Reyes Sanchez, Daniel Attah and Jose Reyes. However, he’s struggled when stepping up in class and has fallen short in big fights against Edwin Valero, Adrien Broner, Jessie Vargas and Rances Barthelemy with Broner and Valero stopping him.
DeMarco also dropped a six-round majority decision to Anthony Vasquez back in 2006 and fought to a six-round majority draw to Curtis Meeks the same year. He enters this fight on a two-bout losing streak as he dropped a 10-round unanimous decision to Barthelemy in June and lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Vargas in a WBA Super Lightweight Championship bout in November of 2014. DeMarco is a capable boxer with a decent chin even though he’s been stopped twice.
Figueroa of Weslaco, Texas is also a former WBC World Lightweight Champion turned pro back in 2008 and has 111 rounds under his belt since. The only blemish on his record up to now was an eight-round split decision draw with Arturo Quintero in 2010. He’s beaten some decent boxers along the way including Jerry Belmontes, Abner Cotto, Nihito Arakawa, Daniel Estrada and Ricky Burns. He beat Burns of Scotland by unanimous decision in his last outing back in September. Figueroa is an action-packed fighter who’s pleasing on the eye and just keeps throwing punches until the job’s done.
His fight against Nihito Arakawa in the summer of 2013 saw Figueroa land 450 of his power shots, which ranks fourth all-time by Compubox when it comes to volume. Figueroa also caught a lot of leather in that bout and proved that he’s got a solid chin. Figueroa doesn’t back down once the bell rings and likes to be the aggressor, but he can’t take DeMarco lightly since he’s a quality opponent who is also a dangerous puncher. DeMarco showed this in his wins against Linares and Molina Jr. when he stopped them both. DeMarco though about hanging up his gloves after losing to Barthelemy earlier this year, but has decided to carry on with his career.
Prediction
Figueroa will go into this fight as the favourite and with good reason. He’s younger, undefeated, and has more power than DeMarco, who appears to be on the downside of his career. At his very best, DeMarco will make a good fight of this, but if he’s not 100 per cent prepared mentally and physically then he’s in trouble. Either way, fans should expect to see Figueroa have his hand raised in victory by decision or late stoppage.
