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Mexican power-puncher Marco
Antonio Rubio will take on
Argentina’s former World
Champion Carlos Manuel Baldomir
for the vacant World Boxing
Federation World Super
Middleweight title on Saturday
September 8 at the Estadio
Miguel Aleman in Celaya, Mexico.
The show, labeled “Viva Celaya
Campeones”, will be promoted by
HG Boxing and Promociones Del
Pueblo, and will go out live on
television throughout Mexico on
Televisa.
Rubio, 54-6-1 (47), turned
professional in 2000 and has
since build an amazingly
impressive resume. Almost half
of his sixty-one fights were for
titles, twenty-nine to be exact,
and twenty-four times Rubio
emerged victorious from
championship bouts.
Having won Mexican national
titles and various regional
straps, this will be the
32-year-olds third attempt to
capture a world championship. In
2009 he lost a challenge of
world middleweight champion
Kelly Pavlik, and this past
February he got the wrong end of
a close decision, also at
middleweight, against Julio
Cesar Chavez Jr.
Moving up to Super Middleweight,
Rubio will this time be on home
turf, and he won’t be coming in
as the outsider. But he is
facing a fighter in Baldomir,
49-14-6 (15), who is no stranger
to being an outsider, and very
often winning as such.
Although 41-years-old, Carlos
Manuel Baldomir is still
operating at a very high level,
and all his impressive victories
since turning pro in 1993 are
way too many to mention. In 2006
he dethroned world champion Zab
Judah in New York, and six
months later defended the title
by stopping Arturo Gatti in
Atlantic City before ultimately
relinquishing it on points to
pound-for-pound king Floyd
Mayweather Jr.
Since then a lot of water has
flown under the bridge, and
Baldomir has yet to recapture
his old glory. In 2007 he came
up short in a Super Welterweight
world title-challenge against
the late Vernon Forrest, and in
2011 he started to campaign at
Middleweight without securing a
shot at world honors.
In his last outing, this past
July, Baldomir made his Super
Middleweight debut with an
impressive knockout victory over
fellow countryman, and former
Mundo Hispano Champion, Gaston
Alejandro Vega. Not known as a
hard puncher, but very much
respected for his brilliant
boxing intelligence, it seems
that Baldomir is still able to
hurt bigger opponents. And
that’s exactly what he plans on
doing to Rubio, saying:
“Rubio
can not deal with quality
fighters. In Mexico, he's a
monster against bad fighters,
but he always crumbles when he
faces a fairly good fighter.
Pavlik and Chavez Jr. are good
examples. I have no fear of
facing him at his weight. I know
that even at 41-years-old and
with the little time I have left
boxing, I still have enough of
an opportunity to beat him".
The Rubio vs. Baldomir WBF World
Super Middleweight title fight
is a classic puncher vs. boxer
encounter, between a young,
albeit experienced, slugger and
an older former world champion
looking to get back on top. It
remains to be seen if the power
of Rubio will be too much for
Baldomir, or if the Argentinean
has too many tricks in the bag
for Rubio to handle. |
