It could be argued how the above headline does a disservice to the Mexican fighting fraternity, as ALL Mexican fighters are hungry. All Mexican fighters are tough, we know that too. On Saturday night in Manchester, when fighting on a stacked card that delivered in spades, little-known Mexican 135 pound southpaw Jovanni “Impacto” Straffon came close to stealing the show; yet in light of how very special the fights between Katie Taylor and Natasha Jonas and Joseph Parker and Dereck Chisora were, Straffon inevitably fell a little short.
Nonetheless, the destructive job the 27-year-old did on the heavily fancied James Tennyson, and the raw action that proceeded the sudden ending, with both men trading furiously, proved to be one of the highlights on Saturday. What we all want now is to see more of Straffon. A pro since 2010, Straffon of Mexico City has now won his last ten, all but two of them by KO. Never stopped, Straffon, 24-3-1(17) has dropped decisions to Carlos Mario Sanchez, Vage Sarukhanyan and, in his most recent defeat, this in October of 2017, Tony Luis. The draw came in Straffon’s second pro outing.
Straffon came to the UK promising to score the upset, and he left asking for further big opportunities. The lightweight division is crammed with major talent, arguably more so than any other weight division in the sport right now, but Straffon, with his power and with his desire and zest for warfare, could prove to be a big player at 135. Hopefully, this exciting fighter will get the big chances he deserves over the coming months.
Everyone loves a Mexican warrior. Everyone loves a big puncher. Straffon is both. How far can he go? It sure could be a whole lot of fun and drama finding out. Matching Straffon from here on out could prove to be quite tough, however. Now that everyone knows how good he is, how lethally dangerous he is, fighters might either ask for big money to fight Straffon, or they might swerve him completely.
Hopefully this will not prove to be the case. We need to see more of Straffon and we need to see him in big fights. Just what is it that makes Mexican fighters so darn tough!