Jon Fernández "Jonfer" Dominguez

This young prodigy has been splitting his time between the US and his native Spain, alternating continents for his last six contests. The protégé of retired ATG, lineal middleweight champ, and quite possibly GOAT p4p Spaniard (with respect to Paulino Uzcudun, the "Basque Wood-Chopper" heavyweight contender and Javier Castillejo, a near-contemporary) - he of the perfectly chiseled jaw-line, Sergio "Maravilla" Gabriel Martínez - is showing a lot of promise and could well be poised to emerge as the greatest product of his country in this current generation.

Tomorrow it will be the other side of the pond's turn playing host to his fireworks, as he takes a big step up versus Alexander Podolsky of Russia in the first scheduled twelve-rounder of both young men's careers. The vacant WBC 130lb Silver title will be on the line. Podolsky is the naturally larger of the pair, having campaigned hitherto exclusively at lightweight and light welter, but it remains to be seen whether this makes Fernández competitively disadvantaged or the beneficiary of Podolsky suffering from weight drain.

The card will be live streamed tomorrow evening here, from midnight until 3am local time in Bilbao (6pm-9pm EST):
http://www.eitb.eus/es/deportes/deporte-en-directo/

Here's a beautiful KO he scored in his latest outing, this June on ShoBox:

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...and his previous visit here, also televised on Showtime:

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...and the one before that, a little over a year ago:

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edit: added the Podolsky match:

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After (presumably) snatching up this prize and his best (on paper) scalp to date in Podolsky, it will be time for another jaunt over to American soil and maybe this next time around something highly visible like a ShoBox co-featured slot? If he continues to put in the work (and you know Maravilla will be riding him in the gym hard and making him sweat buckets, no homo) and is able to mount consecutive impressive televised performances, it could be a cinch to build up his star profile on both sides of the Atlantic, maybe fast-tracking him into the world title scene as early as next fall.

 

Anybody seen any of Podolsky?

 

We're getting pretty spoiled this week in terms of boxing, nothing major but there was PBC on Tuesday, Rivas vs. Drumond tonight, and this one tomorrow.

 

Jonfer's coach Tinín Rodríguez says Podolsky will be the most difficult opponent in his career so far, and not just for his superficially better record. He says the Russian, nicknamed "The Big Problem", is very strong physically despite his low stoppage rate and has good technical boxing skill.

 

So this will actually be on at 2100 local time, which makes a lot more sense. (that is 3pm EST, main event presumably starting in the late afternoon into betimes evening, around 5ish)

 

Uh, okay, never mind...guess it actually is going to be midnight local time/6pm EST...

http://www.eitb.eus/eu/kirolak/zuzenean/

 

Fernández is now ranked #16 by the WBC @ SFW. (rising 14 spots from #30 as of the August rankings. The new September edition will be officially published in the next week but his new ranking was announced yesterday at the org's 55th annual convention in Bakú, Azerbaiján, which Jonfer attended)

 

Jonfer was reportedly getting a little fired up at the convention in Bakú; somebody interviewed him asking if he dared parlay his recent up-jump to just outside the WBC top 15 into facing current super feather green belt holder and six foot tall menace with nuclear-fission in his fists, Miguel Ángel Berchelt. He said he would go to Mexico right now for the opportunity and would be confident of snatching the belt.

José Luis Celaya then swooped in as the voice of reason and provided softer mitigating rhetoric, urging that Jonfer is being carefully brought along with a specific plan in mind and they'll go after the big fish when good and ready.

I admire the kid's enormous cojones but yeah, leaping from Podolsky to Berchelt is probably a bit much.

 

Revolver Lejarraga is good but I think, even with half the experience of his fellow Bilbaíno, that Jonfer is already the better prospect with the higher ceiling. Kerman is more explosive and has a fan-friendlier style and might have not just the size-based apples to apples but a p4p edge in power as well - but Jonfer is smoother with much better textbook fundamentals (punching technique, balance, defensive movement).

Lejarraga might deserve his own thread, though. Not sure if CST80 has done one yet - if not I will.

 

There it now stands in black and white, Jonfer at #16.

What is weird to me is that he is still behind countryman Juli "The Rock" Giner (WBC #15 at super feather, and #30 in the world and #1 from Spain on BoxRec), who is coming off a KO loss to Micky Roman in April of last year followed by three ho-hum small-fry victories in 6- and 8-rounders. It wasn't like a fluke KO from behind either; Roman spanked him and was up on all the judges' cards. Soundly defeating Podolsky is better than anything Giner has done since his single big achievement two years ago, when he upset well regarded 23-0 reigning European champ Romain Jacob. Giner is a one hit wonder and that hit was a while ago. Strange that getting mauled and knocked out (not mitigated by any really special comeback wins since) didn't bump him further down.