By Larry Goldberg
Justin Figueroa got on the scale at The Showroom at Tropicana Atlantic City on Thursday and weighed 160 pounds. Nothing dramatic. He grew up in this town, he trains in this town, and tonight he fights in this town for the fifth time on a Boxing Insider card. We call him Mr. Atlantic City around here for a reason. The kids from the Atlantic City PAL will be in the room tonight supporting him, the way this town supports its own.
A couple of hours after the weigh-in, Luis Caraballo Ramos found me in the hotel lobby. No cameras, no entourage, no manager. He walked up, looked me in the eye and said, in his own words, “I just wanted you to know. I am knocking him out in four rounds.” Then he shook my hand and went upstairs.
I have a stock line for moments like that. It is in the welcome letter every visiting fighter gets when he checks in with us. Nothing Atlantic City loves more than an upset. I said it to him, I meant it, and I went back to worrying about the other six fights.
This is not a man who showed up to collect a check. He is the man Justin fought in March, in this same room, and that night nobody got a win. The two of them did not like each other at the weigh-in, and it carried into the ring. The boxing turned into wrestling, Caraballo Ramos grabbed Justin, Justin fell backward with him, and Caraballo Ramos went down hard and left the building on a stretcher. The fight was ruled a no contest. There was back and forth online for months afterward. Neither man got what he came for, and from that night on this rematch was not a choice. It was unavoidable.
Caraballo Ramos sat down with elite amateur boxer Sarah Cunningham on Thursday and did not hold back. “Justin is a coward. He is not a man. He is weak. What happened in March is getting answered.” Those are his words, not mine. On the scale, to their credit, the two of them were respectful. Nothing extra, nothing staged. The talking is done. Tonight they settle it the right way.
Let me be honest about what this is. This is club boxing. This is the level where fighters still work day jobs, where a fighter drives himself to the weigh-in, where the guy who makes the gloves is in the building because he wants to be. It is a throwback to the way the sport was built, and it barely exists anymore. Nobody here is getting rich tonight. Everybody here is getting a real fight.
Seven of them, actually, and all fourteen made weight. The night opens with JJ Alvarez against Fryers at welterweight, six rounds. Iman Lee meets Aguero Arias over eight rounds at a 130 pound catchweight. Arias and Jones go eight at heavyweight, 251 against 234 and a half, and you do not need me to tell you what happens when heavyweights that size decide to trade. John Leonardo and Nunez go eight at junior featherweight, both on the number at 121. Sanchez and Bray go six at super lightweight. Kobe Williams and Di Stefano go six at lightweight, both at 134. Then the main event.
This is our last show of the year and our twenty second as a promoter. We will be back at the Tropicana in 2027, and we will be running shows in New York next year as well. I am a New York State Boxing Hall of Fame Promoter of the Year who still carries his own folding tables. That is club boxing in 2026 and I would not trade it. Fight week also brings out the vultures, the users and the freeloaders, the way a porch light brings out moths. You learn to laugh about it. It means the show is real.
Now the people you will see tonight. We start with the new commentary team: Josh Hennig of 97.3 ESPN Radio on play-by-play, elite amateur boxer Sarah Cunningham, former professional boxer Curtis Jones, and matchmaker Eric Bottjer. Matt Competello is the ring announcer. Our lovely ring girls Kira and Ava carry the cards, as they have for every show we run. Jillian Ireland sings the national anthem. And the kids from the Atlantic City PAL, the Boys and Girls Club and other youth groups from Atlantic City will be in the stands. This is going to be a fun night.
Doors open at 7 and the first bell is 7:30. Tickets are still available. If you cannot make it to the Boardwalk, the whole card streams free on the Boxing Insider YouTube channel. No paywall, no app, no excuses.
Does Mr. Atlantic City reign, or does the spoiler from Puerto Rico rain on his parade? I do not pick winners. I just promised a man in a hotel lobby that this town loves an upset, and I promised a kid from this town a crowd that will be loud for him. One of those promises is going to hurt somebody.
One more name before the bell. Don Elbaum ran this showroom before I was old enough to buy a ticket. In the 1980s he promoted 196 shows at the Tropicana, the longest run of club boxing any one building in this town has ever seen. Last year, in his final months, we brought him back to this same room and handed him an award, and he passed the torch to me in front of the people who remembered. Tonight is a continuation of his series as much as it is ours. I like to think he is looking down, counting the house, checking the bout sheet, and muttering that the main event should have been ten rounds. Atlantic City still has a fight tonight. He would want it that way.
