THE SAN ANTONIO BOXING SCENE

CARDENAS ADDED TO APRIL 24 CARD

San Antonio super bantamweight Ramon Cardenas (24-1, 13 KOs) returns to the ring April 24 against Jesus Ramirez (22-2-3, 16 KOs) of Mexico in Plant City, Fla. (7 p.m., ProBox TV).

The 10-round bout is scheduled to come on the undercard of the Angelo Leo vs. Eduardo Baez featherweight match in the main event.

Cardenas, ranked No. 4 by the WBA and riding a 12-fight winning streak, is coming off a stunning sixth-round knockout of Israel Picazo on Feb. 16 in Plant City.

INEXPERIENCE HURTS AT GOLDEN GLOVES

For just the second time since Ellis Johnson took over as director of San Antonio Golden Gloves, it will not have a boxer making the trip to nationals.

The best the San Antonio team could do at this year’s Texas State Golden Gloves tournament in Fort Worth was a second-place finish by super heavyweight Lawrence

Cloud.

“It was disappointing,” Johnson said. “Our lack of experience showed. And the competition was pretty steep. There were several national champions and nationally ranked boxers in the field.”

The only other year in the six years since Johnson was named local franchise holder that San Antonio did not have at least one state champion was 2021.

That does not include 2020, when COVID-19 KO’d the entire tournament.

San Antonio lost five of six matches on the opening night of the 2024 state tournament and never recovered.

Johnson theorized that more fighters are skipping the tournament and going pro or simply choosing to pursue other interests and leave the sport altogether.

But the local Golden Gloves event continues to flourish. Johnson attributed his success to his staff of 15-20 loyal volunteers.

“I couldn’t do this without my team,” Johnson said, offering a special “thank you” to volunteers Sam Randazzo and Stephania Toney.

CITY HOSTS JUNIOR GOLDEN GLOVES

Johnson announced that, for the first time, San Antonio is hosting the Texas Junior Golden Gloves tournament.

Set for June 6-9 at the Westin San Antonio North, 9821 Colonnade Blvd., the tournament is open to male and female boxers age 8-16 in the pee wee, intermediate, bantamweight and junior divisions.

NO HOME MATCHES FOR LOCAL TCL TEAM

The San Antonio entry in the nationwide Team Combat League will kick off its season April 5 in Miami against the Dallas Enforcers.

But because they were unable to secure a local venue, the San Antonio Snipers will not have a home schedule, coach AC

said.

Bryant

“(League officials) decided to make us a travel team,” Bryant said. “Our next fight will be in Texas on April 18 against Boston (at Red

Owl Boxing) in Houston.”

Matches consist of 24 three-minute rounds with fighters competing in one-round bouts in six male and two female weight classes.

In addition to San Antonio, other teams are the Houston Hitmen, Dallas Enforcers, Las Vegas Hustle, LA Elite, Boston Butchers, Atlanta Attack, DC Destroyers, Miami Assassins, NYC Attitude, Orlando Vipers and Philly Smoke.