I've somehow, believe it or not, managed to never catch this kid in action. He is just one needle in a haystack of unbeaten prospects on the the Golden Boy Promotions roster (DDLH, Speedy Rashidi, David Mijares, Alexis Rocha, Jonathan Navarro, Aaron McKenna, Blair "The Flair" Cobbs, Ryan Garcia, Vergil Ortiz, Rocky Hernandez, Travell Mazion, Cornell Hines, Manny Robles III, Luis Feliciano, Hector Tanajara, Jason Quigley, Alberto Melian, Alex Rincon, Chris Ousley, Genaro Gamez, Rommel Caballero, brothers Jousce & Joet González, brothers Richard & Oscar Acevedo, Jaba Khositashvili, Raul Curiel, Erik Bazinian, and Lamont Roach - currently just shy of three dozen!) but as they step up in class, more & more of them likely will get exposed until that list is whittled down by attrition to less than a dozen serious blue-chips. Will he be among them? He was reportedly a very good amateur, taking up the sport in prepubescence and racking up several national PAL & Golden Glove championships and nabbing a Silver medal at the Junior Olympics. I haven't been able to find any hard data on his complete record, but he is said to have done pretty well. In the pros his only real step up to date has been former Mexican national middleweight champion Ricardo Adrian Luna Flores, edging him out in a close back-and-forth war two years ago in a GBP on ESPN co-main event. Coming up on Thursday he is taking on Elias Nathaniel "The Latin Kind" González Espadas - who is roughly the same level as Luna Flores on paper. Espadas' only notable opponent to date has been Yamaguchi Falcão, a close UD10 loss. Ballard vs. Zoltan Sera: This content is protected Ballard vs. Victor Fonseca I: This content is protected (D'Mitrius stopped him again in their rematch this past March) Not much to be gleaned from the available footage. He's a fairly typical "American style" prospect, fluid with busy hands and reasonably good defense. Both of those opponents were hopelessly outmatched. So what's the skinny? Is he an upper echelon prospect or just another drop in the GBP bucket?
I only saw him against Luna Flores, and he looked talented, though vulnerable at points against a solid but unspectacular journeyman. He did show heart to seal the deal in the 10th after getting buzzed badly in the ninth so there's some will to go along with his skill...But, on the whole, I don't see him doing progressing to the status of world beltholder at 168lbs. I think potential challenger or participant in a world eliminator is probably his ceiling.
Two more of Golden Boy's aforementioned unbeaten prospects - Khositashvili & Rincon - are on the undercard along with southpaw former 140lb prospect-turned-failed-contender Mike "Yes Indeed" Reed, and Claressa Shields' pro debut opponent Franchon Rebecca Monich Crews, both in showcase mismatches. The co-featured bout pits Edilbert "E-Boy" Gómez against Mexican journeyman brawler Saúl "Navajo" Corral.
I've seen better, I've seen worse...he has some redeeming qualities but when I saw him (don't even know who he fought), he looked decent but didn't blow me away. You can tell he's pretty well schooled and can handle himself in there but there was nothing that screamed "special" to me.
