Currently rated WBO #5 but IMO leagues above the four above him (#4 and Euro titlist McCullough, #3 and badly faded Mares, #2 and very mediocre Laszczyk, and #1 about-to-get-his-title-shot Rodriguez) even though he is yet to face too stiff a test, Little Cobra takes a step in the right direction on Saturday when he co-main events a Boxeo di Primera card on TyC Sports. His opponent is well-traveled Colombian journeyman Walter Estrada, currently 38 years old and unrated, but whose notoriety as upset specialist is widely known - and indeed only flowered in his mid thirties anyway. This is what I wrote when the ornery southpaw took on Jezreel Corrales last November: ...having said all of that, Rueda - despite having cleaned out the domestic Argentine featherweight scene and clawing his way into the clear #2 spot (behind current WBA regular champ Jesús Marcelo Andrés Cuellar) - is yet to face anyone even half as good as Estrada. His biggest prior step up was Claudio Rosendo Tapia, a total feather-fist, who actually dropped Rueda - a very disturbing sign. If he blows out Estrada, it puts him in mostly good company with names like Yuriorkis Gamboa, Jessie Vargas, Michael Farenas, Scott Harrison, and Kevin Mitchell (along with less impressive names like Jezreel Corrales, Rafael Hernandez, and Marvin Quintero) but is still only a first step on the path toward proving himself. If he loses or even struggles, we know that Argentina only has one featherweight worth a damn at the moment. :yep Here is Rueda's most recent conquest, a body shot demolition of Guillermo Osvaldo Soloppi (two rounds faster than Diego Ricardo Santillán, the only person to have previously halted Soloppi): https://vine.co/v/OTevhdYaWaO
