Lightweight Mason Menard earned rave reviews with his two 2016 performances in which he scored a spectacular third-round knockout of then-unbeaten Eudy Bernanrdo in April and followed with a ninth-round knockout of rugged Bahodir Mamadjonov in August.
They were the kind of wins, both of which were nationally televised on Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” series, that garnered Menard buzz among hardcore boxing fans.
He was initially scheduled to return in late October in a non-televised fight, but it was canceled on the day of the weigh-in because of an issue with his opponent.
Then promoter Greg Cohen was in talks with HBO for Menard to face former unified featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa on the Terence Crawford-John Molina Jr. card on Saturday (HBO, 9:35 p.m. ET/PT) at the CenturyLink Center in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
But Gamboa has always been difficult to make deals with and, to nobody’s surprise, the fight fell apart. At that point, HBO went in another direction and decided to go with a Top Rank fight matching former unified lightweight titleholder Juan Diaz and former title challenger Raymundo Beltran, who had shown enormous heart in a one-sided decision loss to then-lightweight champion Crawford in Omaha in November 2014.
“After the fight with Gamboa didn’t happen, and HBO went in another direction, Mason was going to fight in Louisiana on Dec. 15,” Cohen said.
But then Diaz suffered an injury and withdrew from the Beltran fight last month.
Voila. The HBO door opened once again for Menard, 28, of Rayne, Louisiana, to fill in and face Phoenix-based Mexico native Beltran (31-7-1, 19 KOs), 35, which he will do in a scheduled 10-rounder on the network’s tripleheader that also includes same-day taped coverage from Auckland, New Zealand of the vacant heavyweight world title bout between Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz Jr.
“Mason went from training for a Dec. 15 tune-up fight to getting the call for this show,” Cohen said. “He never got out of camp and he is ready. It’s a chance of a lifetime for this kid.”
Cohen said when he spoke to Menard’s manager about three weeks ago about the fight, he gave him the basic information -- opponent, rounds, weight and purse -- and “about a minute and a half later I got a call back that they were in. Mason was already in camp and he is a 365-day-a-year gym kid. That’s his life. He trains. He took this fight with no hesitation.”
Menard (32-1, 24 KOs) is fully aware of how important the fight is for his future.
“Landing this fight is big for me and my career. A win here should put me in position to fight for a world title next,” Menard said. “It should open doors for me and make me a serious contender in the lightweight division. I know Beltran has been around a long time and he's fought at the top level many times. He is very tough and I know he will bring it.
“2016 has been a great year for me. I've had two consecutive KO's on national television and one is a candidate for knockout of the year. Now this fight has fallen into my lap and I will make the best of this opportunity."
As far as Cohen is concerned the fight couldn’t be more of a perfect situation for Menard.
“Under the circumstances, to get a chance on HBO against an older fighter who has a handful of losses, you’re not going to get a better opportunity,” he said. “We all know Beltran has seven losses, but he could easily have only two or three and everyone is going to find out what they need to know about Mason. If he beats Beltran you’ll know he’s championship material and if he doesn’t then you know he’s not championship material. We believe he is and that this is a great opportunity.”
Said Menard: “I am ready. I was already training to fight Dec. 15. It's now or never. I believe God has blessed me with this fight because I've been praying for a big one to get me to the next level."