The U.S. Virgin Islands’ professional boxers will head to Argentina Monday to headline a fight card in Cordoba – but in just a matter of weeks since the fights were announced, the card has changed, leaving all three – John Jackson, Julius Jackson and Samuel Rogers – with new opponents.
The five-bout card is scheduled for Dec. 7 at the historic, 20,000-seat Chateau Carreras Olympic Stadium in Cordoba. The Jackson brothers and Rogers have been billed as the main attractions.
The link between 340 Boxing and Argentina lies with international boxing champion Sergio Martinez, who pulled Rogers and Julius Jackson into his training in Spain earlier this year and used them as his chief sparring partners as he prepared to take on England’s Martin Murray. Martinez, an Argentina native, is the current WBC middleweight champion – a title he was able to keep after beating Murray in April.
Now, the 340 Boxing camp is preparing to blaze the same trail. While there’s no title in contention yet, the fights, will help to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the town’s legendary soccer club and will pit the 340 boxers against their toughest opponents to date.
"It’s a big celebration night, but we know that we’re going into our opponents’ home town so we want to make sure that we bring it," 340 Manager Jose "Tony" Rosario said.
According to the fight card, Julius Jackson, with a 16-0 record that includes 12 knockouts, will be the main attraction of the night, taking on Argentina’s Miguel A. Cobas (11-1-5, 4 KOs.) Jackson was initially pitted against Marcos Hector Vergara (28-3, 21 KOs.)
Jackson said Saturday that the change is good.
“I feel good about my new opponent,” he said. “His ranking is way better than the other, and he looks good, he definitely has good skills. So, I’m hoping it is a tough fight, because the better the opponent, the better I look when we win.”
Jackson has been streamlining his approach in the ring, and said he needs a good fight to “test himself.”
"We’ve been looking for tougher opponents and I’m excited to have a good challenge," he said. "But at the end of the day, I think we’re the best in the world, so if he’s not the best in the world, then he’s not going to win. We’ll just see what he has.”
John Jackson’s bout, another co-main event, will pit the islander against Argentina’s Jorge Daniel Miranda (37-16-3, 18 KOs). The original bout was to have been against Carlos Adan "El Malevo" Jerez (37-16-3, 18 KOs).
Speaking recently, Jackson (51-15, 20 KOs) said he’s been making the most of his training since August’s Boxing in Paradise V.I. fights, and is looking forward to maintaining some of his signature moves.
"What I want to transition over into this fight is my jab, which I had in the last fight," Jackson said. "Normally, I just go and throw a lot of right hands, and I forget about my jab, but last fight I didn’t and I want to bring it into this fight as well, and of course, just continue to improve from there."
Rogers (14-0, 8 KOs) is also a co-main event, and will now take on Jerez, who had originally been scheduled to fight John Jackson. When the card was originally announced Rogers was supposed to test his mettle against Argentina’s Guillermo Suarez (14-3, 4 KOs.)
"I know this guy has a winning record, but what we want right now is tough fights because we want to climb the ranks and top the charts," Rogers said recently. "In order to be the best in the world, you have to fight the best – and a lot of boxers out there, they kind of look at a fight like this and overestimate their opponent and that’s one thing we don’t do. We fight every bout like it’s for a world title and we train hard, extremely hard and yeah, we want tough fights. Tough fights, where we beat them, climb the ranks and be world champions one of these days."
