Buried On The Card, Mercado Needs A Statement Win

Ernesto Mercado and Antonio Moran both weighed in successfully today for their fight Saturday. The light welterweight contender Mercado is looking to put on a show by beating Moran and calling out one of the big names at 140.

The light welterweight Mercado has been on the shelf with an injury that has kept him out of the ring since last January. Fortunately for him, he’s getting a second fight this year against the veteran Moran.

Mercado’s 10-round fight is buried three-deep on the Diego Pacheco vs. Kevin Lele Sadjo card. Despite being the same age as Pacheco, Ernesto isn’t headlining like he is. He hasn’t been fast-tracked. That’s the missing ingredient. That’s why it’s important that he look good against Moran so that he can get more visibility.

Diego Pacheco 167.2 vs. Kevin Lele Sadjo 166
Joe Cordina 135 vs. Gabe Flores Jr 134.8
Ernesto Mercado 139 vs. Antonio Moran 140
Skye Nicolson 121.4 vs. Yuliahn Luna 120
Arturo Cardenas 121.8 vs. Cesar Vaca 120.8
Chev Clarke 199.4 vs. Anthony Hollaway 196.6
Sachery Sam 125.6 vs. Brandon Medina Guerrero 124.8
Cesar Olvera 131.2 vs. Victor Saravia 132

Mercado defeated Jose Pedraza by a fourth-round knockout last January. He says he wants to fight the winner of the Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson fight. That’s unlikely, given that Turki Alalshikh said he has a big fight planned for the winner. It wouldn’t be Mercado that he would be talking about.

“I want to fight both Teofimo and Shakur, so I’m almost a little disappointed that one of them is going to take an ‘L’ as it might diminish when I beat them, but it should be a great fight, and they are trying to put on the best fights, which is really good,” said Ernesto Mercado.

“I think Shakur winning it, which is out of my favor, as he’s not going to want to fight me.”

Mercado (17-0, 16 KOs) vs. Moran (31-7-1, 21 KOs) will be fighting in a 10-round bout on DAZN this Saturday, December 13th, from the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.