By Miguel Maravilla
2018 proved to be another banner year for Zanfer Promotions as its stable crowned several new world champions and continued to deliver exciting fights. Fightnews.com caught up with Zanfer Promotions CEO Fernando Beltran, who discussed their plans for 2019.
“This will be a good year for us. I feel that we are on the rise of becoming one of the biggest platforms in boxing,” Beltran told Fightnews.com “The most important thing is that we are the biggest in Mexico.”
In addition to their international contests, Zanfer promotes a wildly popular weekly boxing telecast in Mexico on Azteca 7, la Casa de Boxeo. Beltran made it clear that his duty is to make the best fights possible for his stable of fighters and to give the fans great fights.
“We are the only promotional company working with everybody. Top Rank, Golden Boy, DAZN, and PBC,” Beltran said.
This past weekend Zanfer had its first card of the year, co-promoting with PBC as Jose Uzcategui (27-3, 23 KOs) dropped a decision to Caleb Plant (18-0, 10 KOs) in losing his IBF super middleweight title.
“This was a very tough and exciting fight, but he will be back soon,” Beltran promised.
Coming on January 26 is the next defense of Zanfer’s WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia, who faces Takeshi Inoue in Houston, Texas.
Munguia (31-0, 26 KOs) burst onto the world scene back in May when he stepped in as a late replacement and annihilated reigning world champion Sadam Ali.
“Munguia is ready for his upcoming fight. He is a very young, talented, dedicated, and responsible fighter. So far he has proved what he is all about,” Beltran commented. “We plan on keeping him active with about four fights this year.”
Zanfer’s newly crowned world champion Emmanuel “El Vaquero” Navarrete (26-1, 22 KOs) closed the year winning a unanimous decision over Isaac Dogboe in December at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.
“It was a good win for him over Dogboe, a very tough champion. We plan on having him back soon,” Beltran said.
“We have multiple champions and great fighters in our stable,” Beltran stated. “Berchelt will be fighting a rematch with Francisco Vargas. That should be a good fight.”
WBC super featherweight champion Miguel “Alarcon” Berchelt is scheduled to have a rematch on March 23 against Francisco Vargas in Los Angeles.
The talented Zanfer roster also includes former world champions Juan Francisco Estrada and undefeated Luis Nery. Estrada last fought in December on HBO’s final boxing telecast. “As far as Nery goes, we are looking at his options for what’s next for him,” Beltran said.
“Jose Zepeda will be fighting for a world title. I have a lot of high hopes for him to be one of our next world champions.”
Zepeda (30-1, 25 KOs) will be challenging WBC super lightweight champion Jose Ramirez for his title on February 10 in Fresno, California.
When asked who will be a future Zanfer world champion, Beltran singled out super lightweight Omar Alejandro “El Pollo” Aguilar (11-0, 10 KOs) and featherweight Carlos Ornelas (21-1, 12 KOs).
“There are many young talented fighters in our stable that represent our future,” Beltran said. “This will be a great year for us.”
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