Mexican power-puncher Marco Antonio Rubio will take on Argentina’s former World Champion Carlos Manuel Baldomir for the vacant World Boxing Federation World Super Middleweight title on Saturday September 8 at the Estadio Miguel Aleman in Celaya, Mexico.
The show, labeled “Viva Celaya Campeones”, will be promoted by HG Boxing and Promociones Del Pueblo, and will go out live on television throughout Mexico on Televisa.
Rubio, 54-6-1 (47), turned professional in 2000 and has since build an amazingly impressive resume. Almost half of his sixty-one fights were for titles, twenty-nine to be exact, and twenty-four times Rubio emerged victorious from championship bouts.
Having won Mexican national titles and various regional straps, this will be the 32-year-olds third attempt to capture a world championship. In 2009 he lost a challenge of world middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, and this past February he got the wrong end of a close decision, also at middleweight, against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Moving up to Super Middleweight, Rubio will this time be on home turf, and he won’t be coming in as the outsider. But he is facing a fighter in Baldomir, 49-14-6 (15), who is no stranger to being an outsider, and very often winning as such.
Although 41-years-old, Carlos Manuel Baldomir is still operating at a very high level, and all his impressive victories since turning pro in 1993 are way too many to mention. In 2006 he dethroned world champion Zab Judah in New York, and six months later defended the title by stopping Arturo Gatti in Atlantic City before ultimately relinquishing it on points to pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Since then a lot of water has flown under the bridge, and Baldomir has yet to recapture his old glory. In 2007 he came up short in a Super Welterweight world title-challenge against the late Vernon Forrest, and in 2011 he started to campaign at Middleweight without securing a shot at world honors.
In his last outing, this past July, Baldomir made his Super Middleweight debut with an impressive knockout victory over fellow countryman, and former Mundo Hispano Champion, Gaston Alejandro Vega. Not known as a hard puncher, but very much respected for his brilliant boxing intelligence, it seems that Baldomir is still able to hurt bigger opponents. And that’s exactly what he plans on doing to Rubio, saying:
“Rubio can not deal with quality fighters. In Mexico, he’s a monster against bad fighters, but he always crumbles when he faces a fairly good fighter. Pavlik and Chavez Jr. are good examples. I have no fear of facing him at his weight. I know that even at 41-years-old and with the little time I have left boxing, I still have enough of an opportunity to beat him”.
The Rubio vs. Baldomir WBF World Super Middleweight title fight is a classic puncher vs. boxer encounter, between a young, albeit experienced, slugger and an older former world champion looking to get back on top. It remains to be seen if the power of Rubio will be too much for Baldomir, or if the Argentinean has too many tricks in the bag for Rubio to handle.
