By Ian S Palmer
The month of January wraps up with a rare Sunday evening boxing card on TV courtesy of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). The main event, which will be televised live on Bounce TV at 9 pm, features undefeated junior middleweight Erickson Lubin of Orlando, Florida battling it out with Jose De Jesus Macias of Mexico over 10 rounds. The card takes place at the Seminole Casino Hotel Immokalee in Immokalee, Florida and can also be seen live on the Premier Boxing Champions website. There’s also an eight-round bout scheduled between welterweights Alex De Jesus and Joseph Elegele.
The 20-year-old Lubin will enter the ring with a perfect record of 13-0 along with 10 Kos while the 24-year-old Macias is currently 18-4-2 with nine Kos to his name. Lubin is already ranked at number 14 in the junior middleweight division by the WBC even though he’s just 20 years old and the organization’s title is vacant at the moment. It’s doubtful that he’ll work his way into a title shot for another year or two, but a win on Sunday night could see him crack the top 10. The youngster has quite a bit of power in his speedy fists and has won his last four contests by way of stoppage. He was last in the ring just a couple of months ago when he scored a second-round stopped over Alexis Camacho.
Lubin stands 5-feet-11-inches tall and has a 76-inch reach. Unfortunately, BoxRec and PBC has no current listing for Macias’ reach. However, we can see a huge difference in punching power as Lubin’s knockout ratio is 77 per cent and Macias’ is just 38 per cent. It should also be noted that Lubin is a southpaw. He turned pro as recently as November of 2013 and has been extremely busy since then with five fights last year and has fought 43 rounds up to now. Lubin has mainly fought opponents who had winning records, but he hasn’t faced anybody the average boxing fan would have heard of. However, he’s still recorded six first-round knockouts and eight within two rounds.
Macias of Guadalajara lost a close 10-round split decision to Alejandro Barrera in his last fight in October. He shouldn’t be taken lightly by Lubin since he was undefeated in his previous 14 outings before losing to Barrera with 13 wins and a draw. He also recorded seven knockouts in 12 of those fights. Macias hasn’t met any recognizable opponents either as of yet and lost his pro debut to Ivan Ramirez by a four-round unanimous decision in 2011. He’s now fought 118 rounds since turning pro and has never been stopped. However, several of his fights have been contested at the lower welterweight division and he may be too small to handle Lubin’s speed and power.
Prediction
Lubin has all of the advantages here and the fight’s basically taking place in his back year. Macias has never lost two in a row and has never been stopped, but he’s also never fought in the U.S. before. Lubin has grown into a junior middleweight body while Macias still also competes as a welterweight. The Mexican will need to get inside against Lubin and make sure he doesn’t walk into any power shots. It’s hard to say how long this fight will last, but Lubin should remain undefeated with another stoppage, with a decision being a less-likely outcome.
