New Mexico Sky City Casino Fights-Saturday

Local talent Matthew Esquivel tests California’s desert fighter Luis Cervantes on Saturday at the Sky City Casino in Acoma, New Mexico.

The fight card is promoted by Juan Romero Promotions and features a number of other quality fights at the New Mexico casino that’s located about 40 miles west of Albuquerque.

Lately, boxing in New Mexico was said to be on the decline, but a few promoters have kept the hits coming, including Juan Romero, the younger brother of Danny “Kid Dynamite” Romero.

“I don’t think boxing has died a little bit, I just think that nobody was promoting boxing for a while,” said Romero who is now in his eighth boxing show in the state. “Now we have a lot of things going.”

In the feature event undefeated Esquivel (7-0, 4 KOs) meets Cathedral City’s Cervantes (7-1-3) who’s accustomed to fighting on the road. It should be an interesting match between the two young junior lightweights.

Romero says there are plenty of other good fights between solid youngsters.

“There’s plenty of fighters in New Mexico,” said Romero. “I’m just trying to put on good boxing matches.”

Promoting fights is much more difficult than it appears with fights always dropping out in the last minute and the various personalities involved.

“The hardest part is dealing with the 16 different personalities,” says Romero. “That and keeping the cards together.”

Other bouts on the card are: Saul Palacios (2-0) vs. James Pilar (1-0) in a bantamweight fight; David Proa (2-0) vs. Beto Perez (1-2) in a junior featherweight match; Archie Marquez (1-0) vs. Holguin Gutierrez (0-1) in a junior lightweight bout; Alejandro Lopez (0-0) making his pro debut against Jose Garcia (1-3-1) in a junior middleweight contest.

The bout will be televised at a later date via the Internet on the Boxing Channel.

For tickets and information (888) SKY-CITY.