By David Finger
One of the most exciting prospects in Texas, undefeated middleweight prospect Jorge Tovar (12-0, 9 KOs), makes his return to the ring after a short layoff to take on Eric Moon (11-6-1, 6 KOs) in a six round headline bout at the Inn of the Mountainair Gods in Mescalero, New Mexico.
Tovar, who last fought in July, will be fighting for the third time in 2025 against the Georgia native in Moon, who is a prohibitive underdog. Moon, who started his career in impressive fashion having won 11 of his first 12 fights, is in the middle of an ugly slide, going winless in his last six fights since 2019. But although Moon is struggling, he also provides a valuable litmus test for Tovar as Moon has faced some solid competition during that slide. Most notably, Moon was stopped in one round by Edgar Berlanga back in 2020 and in his last fight Moon was stopped in three rounds by undefeated California based prospect Ruben Cazales last October. For Tovar, Eric Moon may not be a serious threat to derail his rise into contention, but he still needs to look impressive.
The undercard features another hot El Paso prospect in undefeated junior middleweight Victor Aranda (5-0, 5 KOs) as he takes on the durable DePriest Johnson (4-8, 0 KOs) in a four rounder. On paper the fight looks to be fairly lopsided, but Johnson is one of the more durable fighters in the division and has never been stopped in his twelve fight career and has only been dropped once. For Aranda, there is a strong possibility that Johnson could take him the distance for the first time, and this should be an opportunity for Aranda to not only try and become the first man to stop Johnson, but in the alternative to learn how to fight against an opponent who has the chin and defense to frustrate that plan.
In the co-main event Jesús Ariel Moreno Arias (10-1-1, 8 KOs) of Mexico takes on Roberto Pucheta (14-26-3, 8 KOs) of Los Angeles. For Arias, this will be his first fight in the United States, having fought almost exclusively in Ciudad Juarez (all but one of his fights were in Juarez). As he struggled in his last fight against Joseph Morales Villar, the conventional wisdom is this fight may emerge as the fight of the night as Arias deals with not only fighting in a higher elevation for the first time, but having to do so against a tough brawler.
Rounding off the undercard, New Mexico heavyweight Ronald Baca (9-4-5, 3 KOs) takes on El Paso’s Marcos Duran (2-1, 2 KOs). Albuquerque’s Shaun Lee Henson (2-5, 2 KOs) takes on Levelland Texas’s Damien Munoz (2-1, 2 KOs) in a four round junior middleweight clash. El Paso’s Luis Angel Ledesma (1-1-1, 1 KOs) battles fellow El Paso native Pedro Rodarte in a lightweight fight. Rodarte will be making his professional debut. And in the scheduled opening fight of the night debuting William Salgado of Corpus Christi takes on Cruz Reyes (0-1) in a four round super flyweight fight.
Tickets for the event start at $56.50 and can be obtained at Ticketmaster.com or at the Inn of the Mountain Gods box office.
