Miguel Madueno will step in to replace injured Regis Prograis as Oscar Duarte’s opponent for their light welterweight clash on February 15th at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The event will be shown live on DAZN.
Lightweight Madueno (31-3, 28 KOs) will move up to 140 to take on the brawler Duarte (28-2-1, 22 KOs) in a fight that should be much more interesting than the original one involving the 36-year-old Prograis, who has lost his last two fights.
Madueno In, Prograis Out
Madueno, 26, is coming off a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision to Top Rank’s Keyshawn Davis on July 6th last year in Newark, New Jersey. Keyshawn turned the fight into a wrestling match to neutralize the pressure from Madueno and got away with murder with these tactics.
At one point, Keyshawn picked Maudeno off the group and looked ready to body slam him. The referee did nothing. When Madueno pulled the same move, he was sternly warned. Keyshawn looked desperate and should have been disqualified.
Obviously, the 2020 Olympic silver medalist, Keyshawn, was the A-side for that fight and is being given a huge push by Top Rank to turn him into a star as fast as possible.
Jake Donavan is reporting that Madueno is the replacement opponent for Duarte to fight on February 15th on DAZN. Fans have a mixed reaction to Madueno getting the match. Obviously, some of them would have preferred a better opponent like Ernesto Mercado, Andy Cruz, or Gary Antuanne Russell.
It’s unlikely that Golden Boy Promotions would have agreed to any of those fighters being used because they’re trying to keep Duarte from getting beaten again after he was knocked out in the eighth round by Ryan Garcia on December 2nd, 2023.
Duarte has won his last two fights against Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz and Botirzhon Akhmedov. Although he looked good in both fights, he remains the same vulnerable fighter that Ryan Garcia knocked out.
If Madueno can put hands on Duarte, he may knock him out, too and make Golden Boy regret having used him as the replacement.
