By Dan Ambrose: Super bantamweight Robert Marroquin (22-2, 15 KO’s) will be moving up to featherweight to face Antonio Escalante (28-5, 19 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the WinStar Casino, in Thackerville, Oklahoma, USA. This will be a good test for the 23-year-old Marroquin, who is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision loss to WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last September.
Despite losing the fight by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, Marroquin hurt Rigondeaux on a couple of occasions with hard left hooks to the head. Marroquin showed good power in that fight, and his big size advantage over Rigondeaux really helped his case. Unfortunately for Marroquin, he failed to throw enough punches to win and he ended up getting badly outworked by Rigondeaux.
By Sam Gregory: The main event of the July 24th edition of ESPN2 Friday Night Fights live from El Paso, Texas features southpaw Cornelius Lock 18-3-1 with 11 KO’s who takes on hometown favorite Antonio Escalante 20-2 with 13 KO’s in a scheduled 10 round fight in the featherweight division.
By Jason Kim: In something of an upset, the hard hitting featherweight contender Antonio Escalante (20-2, 13 KOs) stopped Gary Stark Jr. (22-3, 8 KOs) in the 3rd round on Friday night at the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois. Escalante, 23, hurt Stark with a big left hook in the 3rd round, knocking him to the canvas. Stark got up but was almost immediately mowed down with a left and then a chopping right hand while standing against the ropes.