While the eyes of the boxing world will be focused on the Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn fight in Brisbane, Australia, this weekend, a trio of undefeated up-and-comers will showcase their wares Friday night in the hopes that one day they will fight for a world title with millions of dollars on the line.
Bantamweight Oscar "El Jaguar" Negrete (16-0, 6 KOs), junior welterweight Ryan "Blue Chip" Martin (18-0, 11 KOs) and lightweight Genaro "El Conde" Gamez (4-0, 3 KOs) will be featured in separate bouts on a Golden Boy on ESPN show emanating from Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
Negrete, a Colombian living in Rosemead, California, will face Sergio "Finito" Frias (18-6-2, 9 KOs) in a 10-round bantamweight bout.
In Negrete's most recent fight, he won a unanimous eight-round decision over Victor Ruiz by scores of 80-72 in all scorecards on May 5.
"The jaguar is an animal that is representative of my hometown of Tierralta," said Negrete of his nickname. "It is also the name of the soccer team from my home state. My manager started calling me that because I pounce on my opponents like a jaguar."
Negrete, 29, started boxing at the age of 8 and had more than 200 amateur bouts, including nine Colombian national championships. After winning one bout in the World Series of Boxing in 2011, he turned pro in May 2013 in Mexico, where he had two more fights before moving his base of operations to California.
"Oscar has an aggressive style. He will put hands on you from the beginning to the end," said his trainer, Manny Robles, who also trains featherweight titleholder Oscar Valdez, junior featherweight titleholder Jessie Magdaleno and Irish prospect Michael Conlan.
Although Frias is only 5-4-1 in his 10 most recent fights, he is coming off the biggest win of his career, a devastating second-round knockout of Vic Darchinyan, the former flyweight and super flyweight titleholder. Frias floored Darchinyan with a terrific right hand and the referee stopped the fight without bothering to count.
"My style is more boxer. I like to throw my hands, move my legs. My style is hit and run, hit and run -- to be like a sniper," said the 26-year-old Frias. "When my opponent makes a mistake, I take advantage of it."
Martin, 24, will face Marcos "El Tigre" Jimenez (22-7, 15 KOs) of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in a scheduled 10-rounder. Originally from Chattanooga, Martin was a 12-time Tennessee amateur champion, and he is now based in Cleveland, Ohio.
He has been training in Big Bear, California, with Abel Sanchez, who also prepared Martin for his most recent fight, an impressive eighth-round TKO of Bryant Cruz on the March 18 Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs undercard. Martin dominated the contest, repeatedly rocking Cruz and finally forcing a stoppage when he battered his opponent with a series of unanswered punches.
"My style is excitement," said Martin. "I like to mix it up at times, just to give the crowd a good fight."
Jimenez, who has been a pro for 11 years, began his career boxing in Puerto Rico but has been campaigning mainly in the United States since 2011.
"I consider myself an all-around boxer who has a good technique," said the 31-year-old Jimenez. "I think I can punch a little bit, too, but I consider myself a boxing technician. I take the first round to see what my opponent will bring and then I decide how I'm going to fight him."
"Jimenez is one of these guys who covers up well," said Martin. "He's really economical with his punches -- he's not taking his hands away from his head much. We're really going to have to work hard to look good against him because he's so defensive-oriented."
Gamez, 21, of San Diego, almost stopped boxing when his older brother, Luis, was killed in a 2009 auto accident.
"When that accident happened, I forgot about everything. I was just heartbroken," said Martin. "I got away from boxing for a while, like, two years. Then I started looking at how my whole family was destroyed and started thinking I'm going to keep going with my dream. I was born for this. I know this will make my family happy and come back to life. I came back really strong when I was 17. That's why I did it, and now I'm fighting on ESPN.
The man who hopes to derail Gamez's dream in a scheduled six-rounder is Devon Jones (2-4, 1 KO), a 25-year-old prospect from Louisiana.
The show will be broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes (10 p.m. ET). The preliminary bouts will be streamed live on ESPN3 at 8:30 p.m. ET.