By Dan Ambrose: Juan Francisco Estrada will be defending his WBC & Ring Magazine super flyweight titles this Saturday, September 3rd, against little-known 2nd-tier fighter Argi Cortes on DAZN in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Interestingly, DAZN will be showing the Estrada-Cortes fight because it’s not remotely a competitive fight on paper. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, as Cortes has zero chance of winning this fight against the highly accomplished Estrada.
Estrada-Cortes undercard:
- Erika Cruz vs. Jelena Mrdjenovich
- Hector Flores vs. Sivenathi Nontshinga
- Eduardo Hernandez vs. Jorge Mata
You can argue that DAZN should have let Estrada’s management know that he needs to fight better quality opposition than this if he’s to be shown on their network. At least fight an actual contender instead of fishing for a non-ranked guy for an easy showcase type of match.
The only way this contest goes past three rounds is if Estrada chooses to carry, and it’s doubtful that he will. Even if Estrada takes it easy on Cortes, he’ll likely score an early knockout because he’s worlds better than this unknown guy,
Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs) is using the 27-year-old Cortes as a tune-up opponent to get him ready for his trilogy fight against Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez later this year or in early 2023.
Given that most boxing fans believe Estrada lost by a wide margin last year against Chocolatito, it was a silly idea for him to use Cortes as a fighter that would help prepare him for a third fight against Roman.
Unfortunately, Cortes (23-2, 10 KOs) isn’t the ideal opponent to prepare the 32-year-old Estrada for a third fight with Chocolatito, as he’s not a top 15 world-class fighter.
He’s just a fighter that is being used as a warm-up, who has never fought anyone in the top tier in his eight-year professional career and will be hopelessly outclassed inside the ring with Estrada this Saturday. That’s obviously the whole point.
Although the 27-year-old Cortes has won his last eleven fights since 2018, he’s done it against unknown lower-level opposition. Cortes hasn’t beaten anyone worth noting, which takes away the value of him winning the fights.
Estrada recently passed up on the idea of facing WBA ‘regular’ 115-lb champion Joshua Franco. That would have been an excellent fight for Juan Francisco, but he decided not to take it.