Saturday, March 7, 2026 | Tropicana Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City, NJ
Broadcast: BoxingInsider YouTube (free)
Promoter: Larry Goldberg, Boxing Insider Promotions
Commentary: Randy Gordon, Eric Bottjer, Avril Mathie

Boxing Insider Promotions returned to the Tropicana Showroom for its 20th professional card — a six-fight show streamed live and free on the BoxingInsider YouTube channel. The card produced several strong performances, a legitimate upset, and a main event ending that left the building frustrated. Five of six bouts were decided, but the one that mattered most was not.

MAIN EVENT
Justin “Mr. Atlantic City” Figueroa (14-0, 11 KOs) NC Luis Caraballo Ramos (8-8-1, 8 KOs)
Super Welterweight — 8 Rounds (scheduled)
Result: No Contest (accidental foul, Round 3)

This was not the ending anyone wanted. Figueroa, the Junior NABF super welterweight champion and Atlantic City’s undefeated hometown star, was the sharper fighter from the opening bell against the late replacement Ramos. Ramos, to his credit, applied pressure in the first round and made the early exchanges competitive, but Figueroa began asserting himself in the second, putting his punches together with more authority. By the third, Figueroa had taken clear control and appeared to hurt Ramos with a left hook to the body near the end of the round.

Then everything went sideways. As the two fighters got tangled on the ropes, Figueroa — a former wrestler at Holy Spirit High School — dropped straight back and took Ramos headfirst into the canvas in a move that resembled a DDT. Both fighters hit the mat hard. Figueroa appeared to momentarily hurt his back, but Ramos absorbed the worst of the impact. After briefly lifting his head to speak with the referee, Ramos rolled over in pain and remained on the canvas for several minutes. His neck was immobilized with a collar and he was removed from the ring on a stretcher, though he reassured the crowd by raising both hands on his way out of the arena.

The New Jersey Athletic Control Board ruled the foul accidental. Because the bout had not reached four completed rounds, the scorecards could not be used, and the fight was declared a no contest. It was a controversial and deeply unfulfilling end to a main event. A rematch is being pursued.

CO-FEATURE
John “Body Shot” Leonardo (13-1-1, 6 KOs) def. Edgar Joe Cortes (9-9-1, 1 KO)
Super Bantamweight — 8 Rounds
Result: Unanimous Decision (79-73, 78-74, 77-75)

John Leonardo delivered the best performance of the night in his return to a Boxing Insider card. The first three rounds featured spirited exchanges between the two New Jersey fighters, with Cortes showing plenty of willingness to engage. But Leonardo’s relentless pressure and trademark body work began to tell starting in the fourth round. He sat down on heavier straight rights and hooks to the body as the fight wore on, systematically breaking Cortes down. By the championship rounds, Leonardo was putting sustained beatings on his opponent, forcing Cortes to hold repeatedly just to survive to the final bell. One judge had the fight at 77-75, far more generous to Cortes than the action warranted. Leonardo, 25, of Manalapan Township has now won six consecutive fights since his lone defeat. Cortes, 31, of Vineland has now lost three straight.

Josh “The Hammer” Popper (6-0, 6 KOs) def. Dillon Pumphrey (1-1)
Heavyweight — 4 Rounds (scheduled)
Result: TKO Round 1 (1:12)

Popper needed just 72 seconds, but this one was hard to celebrate. The undefeated heavyweight from Somers Point, a sculpted 235 pounds, came out with visible intensity after comments made by Pumphrey at the weigh-in created bad blood between the two. Pumphrey, a West Virginia native who weighed in at a grossly overweight 330 pounds and entered the ring wearing Butterbean-inspired trunks to match the look, was never a realistic opponent at that size. He came out swinging haymakers while Popper talked to him from the opening bell, tagging him with jabs and power shots from range. A check left hook dropped Pumphrey for a nine-count. He rose but had no interest in continuing, and the referee waved it off. Popper has now stopped all six of his professional opponents, but this was a mismatch that did nothing to test him.

Indeya “Azucar” Rodriguez (7-8-3, 1 KO) def. Lia Lewandowski (3-1, 1 KO)
Super Flyweight — 6 Rounds
Result: Unanimous Decision (59-55, 59-55, 58-56)

Rodriguez pulled off the upset of the night, outworking the previously unbeaten Lewandowski over six competitive rounds. Rodriguez came out aggressively from the opening bell, closing the distance on the much taller Lewandowski and taking the fight to her. Lewandowski landed clean jabs and uppercuts to establish range in the first, but Rodriguez found a home for her overhand right in the second round, rocking Lewandowski with a series of shots that marked up her left cheek. Lewandowski made adjustments in the third, getting her head off the line and catching Rodriguez with shots straight down the middle, but she was never able to sustain the offensive momentum. Her output was almost exclusively off her right hand — she never brought back her left hook after the right. Rodriguez stepped up her aggression over the final two rounds, ripping right hands to the head and body as Lewandowski switched southpaw looking for defensive solutions. Lewandowski never stopped throwing back, but Rodriguez’s relentless pace and forward pressure were the difference.

It was the second upset Rodriguez has pulled off on a Boxing Insider Promotions card. She defeated former world title challenger Sulem Urbina in her first appearance on a Boxing Insider show in 2022 — a fight in which Urbina’s only prior losses had come to unified champion Marlen Esparza and WBA titleholder Naoko Fujioka. Rodriguez, who fights out of the Rock Boxing Academy in Dallas, said after the fight that she would like to compete at 108 pounds moving forward.

Julio “Julez” Sanchez III (4-1, 3 KOs) def. Christopher Williams (0-2)
Super Lightweight — 4 Rounds (scheduled)
Result: TKO Round 1 (2:24)

The Pleasantville hometown fighter opened the card with a quick and decisive stoppage. Sanchez blasted the overmatched Williams of Rochester, New York, taking advantage of his opponent’s poor balance to land virtually everything he threw. The referee stopped it at 2:24 of the first. Williams offered more resistance to the ring ropes than he did to Sanchez’s combinations.

Jacob Riley Solis (8-0-1, 6 KOs) def. Jeremy Ramos (14-17)
Middleweight — 6 Rounds
Result: Unanimous Decision (60-54, 59-55, 59-55)

Solis returned from a 10-month layoff and was never seriously tested. The New York City middleweight controlled the fight entirely with his jab, piling up points round after round while Ramos, 38, of Colorado Springs boxed as if he were in sparring-partner mode. It took Ramos until the sixth round to muster any self-belief and put punches together — he landed a left-hook counter that got Solis’s attention, followed by an unanswered right hand — but by then the fight had long been decided. Solis, 34, had been sidelined since last May after suffering a knockout in a public sparring session. The rust was visible, but the jab was sharp and the distance management was sound.

Boxing Insider Promotions returns to the Tropicana Showroom in June.