Promoter Bob Arum wants Xander Zayas to make the first defense of his WBO junior middleweight title in his native Puerto Rico.

Xander Zayas didn’t necessarily expect Jorge Garcia to upset Charles Conwell. The unbeaten Puerto Rican contender wasn’t stunned, either, that Garcia beat Conwell, who was listed as 13-1 favorite to win their junior middleweight match three months ago. Garcia’s split-decision victory over Cleveland’s Conwell (21-1, 16 KOs) propelled him into his 12-round fight with Zayas on Saturday night in New York for the vacant WBO 154-pound title.

"He underestimated me," Garcia said. “His team took me as someone perhaps not important, someone who was easy. And my record often gets people to think like that. They get too confident. They believe that I don’t belong on those kinds of stages. But my quality and my hunger is something not many have. Even fewer people have my mentality."

Jorge Garcia Perez was a dead man walking. The 28-year-old found himself in relatively big spots before but no matter how hard he tried, he always came up short. So, when he was asked to knock off Charles Conwell, that seemed practically impossible.

The good news for Charles “Bad News” Conwell is that he’s staying busy. The not-so-good news is that he’s not landing the title shots he’s long been seeking.

Undisputed flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora headlines a Golden Boy Promotions card Saturday against Marilyn Badillo at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California on DAZN. The 23-year-old Fundora — The Ring’s 2024 Female Fighter of the Year and from the nearby Coachella Valley — will get the star treatment as she headlines a card for the first time in her four-year career.

Unbeaten junior middleweight contender Charles Conwell will continue building off a momentous 2024 campaign when he returns April 19 to face Jorge Garcia Perez.

A fight between unified junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora and Chordale Booker is “nearly finalized” for March 22 in Las Vegas.

Another undefeated opponent, another stoppage for Charles Conwell. Cleveland’s Conwell dismantled Argentinean Gerardo Vergara on his way to a seventh-round knockout Saturday night on the Alexis Rocha-Raul Curiel undercard at Toyota Arena in Ontario,