Miguel “The Scorpion” Marriaga has had two previous cracks at world championship glory, falling short against Oscar Valdez and Vasiliy Lomachenko. The Colombian puncher’s quest for a third title shot continues Saturday, Nov. 3, when he takes on Jose Estrella (20-14-1, 14 KOs) in an eight-round featherweight bout at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.
Marriaga-Estrella will be the co-feature to the previously announced Miguel Berchelt-Miguel Roman super featherweight title bout and will stream live at 9:30 p.m ET. on ESPN+— the new multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer & International segment in conjunction with ESPN.
The undercard will stream live on ESPN+ beginning at 6 p.m. ET and includes 2016 Brazilian Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceicao (9-0, 5 KOs), who will take on Joey Laviolette (9-1, 5 KOs) in an eight-round super featherweight fight.
“I am excited to be back on a great card, and I look forward to winning impressively and getting back to world title contention,” Marriaga said. “There are a lot of great featherweights out there, and I am here to prove that I am one of them.”
Marriaga (26-3, 22 KOs) proved he belonged at the world-class level in 2017 with a pair of valiant efforts in championship bouts. He battled WBO featherweight champion Valdez, pushing the budding superstar en route to a competitive unanimous decision defeat. He then moved up four pounds to challenge pound-for-pound elite Lomachenko for the WBO junior lightweight title, losing via seventh-round TKO. He returned to action on May 12 in Colombia, knocking out Derlinson Buriel in the fourth round.
In other undercard action:
Saul “Neno” Rodriguez (21-0-1, 15 KOs) will return from a 20-month layoff to face Claudio Tapia (28-18-4, 13 KOs) in a 10-round lightweight bout.
Sagadat Rakhmankul (3-0, 1 KO), the Egis Klimas-managed prospect who is training out of the Boxing Laboratory in Oxnard, Calif., will fight Nicklaus Flaz (5-1, 4 KOs) in an eight-rounder at welterweight.
Janibek Alimkhanuly (3-0, 1 KO), also known as “Johnny 2 Guns”, will fight the talented Vaughn Alexander (12-1, 8 KOs) in an eight-rounder at super middleweight. Alimkhanuly last fought Sept. 28 and shut out Carlos Galvan over six rounds.
El Paso-born middleweight prospect Zach Prieto (3-0, 2 KOs) will fight Michael Andrews (1-2, 0 KOs) in a four-rounder.
Philadelphia native Paul Krool (1-0, 1 KOs) will look to make it two in a row against an opponent to be determined in a four-round welterweight bout.
Use the hashtag #BercheltRoman to join the conversation on social media.
