Andreas HaleMar 13, 2026, 01:46 PM ET
CloseAndreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas’ free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM’s Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z’s Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film “Bridges” in 2024.
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Cuba’s Yoenis Tellez has been summoned to square off with Brian Mendoza in a junior middleweight showdown that will serve as the new co-main event for Sebastian Fundora’s WBC 154-pound title defense against Keith Thurman on March 28 in Las Vegas.
Tellez-Mendoza replaces the heavyweight showdown between Richard Torrez Jr. and Frank Sanchez that was postponed after Sanchez had complications with a knee injury.
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Tellez (11-1, 8 KOs), 25, suffered the first loss of his career when he dropped a unanimous decision to Abass Baraou for the WBA interim junior middleweight title last August. He bounced back with a stoppage win over Kendo Castaneda in December and now finds himself ranked in the top 10 of ESPN’s divisional rankings and serving as the co-main for the PBC on Prime Video PPV.
Mendoza (23-4, 17 KOs) famously knocked out Fundora in 2023 for the WBC interim junior middleweight title. Mendoza was down on all three scorecards before pulling off the stunning knockout that served as Fundora’s only loss as a pro. He has gone 1-2 since then with losses to Tim Tszyu and Serhii Bohachuk but got himself back into the win column with a TKO of Jesus Antonio Rojas last July.