Matchroom announces Rodriguez vs Edwards, three more cards for the fall

Matchroom Boxing made four U.S. and Mexico fight nights official for the fall months.

Matchroom Boxing have officially announced four upcoming cards for September, November, and December, all based in the U.S. or Mexico.

The biggest of them is making the previously-reported Dec. 16 flyweight unification between Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards official.

Rodriguez (18-0, 11 KO) will put his WBO title up against the IBF belt held by Edwards (20-0, 4 KO) at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz.

Here’s a rundown of the rest:

Friday, Sept. 15
Angel Fierro vs Brayan Zamarripa

A pretty standard Matchroom show in Mexico from Tijuana, with Fierro (21-1-2, 17 KO) meeting Zamarripa (13-1, 4 KO) in a lightweight main event.

On the undercard, Erika Cruz (15-2, 3 KO) will look to bounce back from her tough loss to Amanda Serrano on Feb. 4, as she faces Melissa Oddessa Parker (6-1, 2 KO), who is coming off of a loss to Shurretta Metcalf on July 29, and is a bantamweight by trade, whereas Cruz is a former featherweight titleholder.

This show will go head-to-head with Luis Alberto Lopez’s featherweight title defense against Joet Gonzalez on ESPN.

Saturday, Sept. 23
Richardson Hitchins vs Jose Zepeda

Probably the best-looking of these “other” cards, with a nice main event between Hitchins (16-0, 7 KO), a prospect looking to graduate to contender status, and the veteran contender Zepeda (36-3, 27 KO), who most last saw losing to Regis Prograis late in 2022, but fought in March and picked up a win over Neeraj Goyat.

The undercard will see Austin “Ammo” Williams (14-0, 10 KO) face Steve Rolls (22-2, 12 KO), as apparently Williams vs Felix Cash still just isn’t going to happen, plus a three-belt welterweight unification between WBC/WBA titleholder and former undisputed champ Jessica McCaskill (12-3, 5 KO) and WBO titleholder Sandy Ryan (6-1, 2 KO).

This show will take place at Caribe Royale in Orlando, which is a fine and proven smaller venue for boxing, with this being about as big a show as you can put there.

Saturday, Nov. 18
Diego Pacheco vs Marcelo Coceres

Pacheco (19-0, 16 KO) will get his desired main event in Los Angeles, as he’ll headline at YouTube Theater against Coceres (32-5-1, 18 KO) in a super middleweight clash.

Coceres, a 32-year-old Argentine, has notable losses to Billy Joe Saunders, Edgar Berlanga, Erik Bazinyan, and Meiirim Nursultanov, the last one of those an attempt to go down to 160. He has been fairly competitive at least in most of those fights, and he’s the sort of guy that “makes sense” for the 22-year-old Pacheco.

But Pacheco will be expected to win and without a lot of real trouble, at least if he’s who he’s supposed to be.