Ernesto “Tito” Mercado intended for 2025 to unfold very differently.

The young knockout artist hoped to fight three or four times on his way toward securing a junior welterweight title shot. Mercado (17-0, 16 KOs) started this year successfully when he stopped overmatched former junior lightweight and lightweight champ Jose Pedraza in the fourth round January 25 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

The Pomona, California native’s plan collapsed when Mercado sustained a strained right rotator cuff while sparring the week before his next fight, scheduled for June 14 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Mercado needed physical therapy for his shoulder injury and four months away from strenuous boxing training before he could commit to his return Saturday night against Antonio Moran.

Mexico City’s Moran (31-7-1, 21 KOs) upset Mykquan Williams (22-1-2, 11 KOs), of East Hartford, Connecticut, by majority decision in his last fight, a 10-rounder April 5 at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. After a long, frustrating 10½ months away from the ring, Mercado promised Moran won’t knock off another ambitious American.

“He’s fought some good guys,” Mercado told The Ring. “But ultimately, he has the kind of title that I want [the WBO international belt]. I wanna get ranked up in a lot of these organizations. And the WBO happens just happens to be one of the ones I really want. I wanna beat Teofimo [Lopez]. So, this is the perfect fight. He’s been in there with some good guys and I expect him to come in there full of confidence. He just beat a guy [who was] 22-0.

“So, I mean, he’s probably looking at me kinda like all the other guys, right? They’re like, ‘He’s just a kid. He’s 17-0, but he ain’t fought nobody.’ That’s what everybody says, right? Then once they get, you know, socked up a couple times they start to think differently. But I’m definitely expecting, you know, to keep my knockout streak. I wanna end it just like I started off the year, you know, with a knockout. And I think I’m gonna take him out pretty early, too.”

Devin Haney violently knocked out Moran when the three-division champion was a lightweight in May 2019. Moran also lost decisions to Pedraza, Arnold Barboza Jr. and Jamaine Ortiz and was knocked out by Andy Cruz before he edged Williams on the cards eight months ago.

Mercado, meanwhile, just wants to generate some momentum heading into 2026, a year he hopes is much more fruitful than this one.

“It’s been real frustrating,” Mercado said, “especially when I see a lotta guys in my weight class, not so much doing big things, but staying active. For me to not be in the mix, it definitely is frustrating, but I’m just hoping that I can come back with a bang. This has probably been one of my most inactive years. I usually fight four, five times a year, so for me, man, it’s been kinda tough being on the sidelines, just waiting.”

DAZN will stream the 10-round Mercado-Moran match as part of the Diego Pacheco-Kevin Lele Sadjo undercard from Adventist Health Arena in Stockton, California. Prelim coverage is set to start at 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT), three hours before the main portion of the show (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT).