{"id":311675,"date":"2025-12-12T08:09:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T08:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/311675\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T08:09:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T08:09:17","slug":"mercado-returns-predicts-ko-wins-over-top-140-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/311675\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercado Returns, Predicts KO Wins Over Top 140 Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ernesto \u2018Tito\u2019 Mercado makes his return against Antonio Moran this Saturday, December 13th, on a Matchroom card at the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.<\/p>\n<p>Why Antonio Moran Now<\/p>\n<p>The Eddie Hearn-promoted Mercardo (17-0, 16 KOs) will be fighting veteran Moran (31-7-1, 21 KOs) in a tune-up 10-round bout <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"DAZN\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boxingnews24.com\/go\/dazn-3\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">on DAZN<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxingnews24.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Add Boxing News 24 as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"310\" height=\"40\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/google_preferred_source_badge_light.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Eleven Months Out<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the 24-year-old phenom Mercado\u2019s first fight in 11 months, so it\u2019s understandable why he\u2019s facing Moran. He\u2019s been out with a training camp injury he suffered last June.\u00a0 He\u2019s finally ready to turn. Mercado vs. Moran will be for the\u00a0WBO International light welterweight title.<\/p>\n<p>It makes sense that Ernesto is fighting for the WBO International belt, as his best bet for a nice payday is to be moved up the WBO\u2019s rankings at 140. Teofimo Lopez is the current champion, but that could change if he loses to Shakur Stevenson on January 31st.<\/p>\n<p>Mercado <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MatchroomBoxing\/status\/1999006232640700686\" rel=\"nofollow\">gives predictions<\/a> of how long these fighters would last against him:<\/p>\n<p>Teofimo Lopez: \u201cI give him five rounds.\u201d<br \/>\nShakur Stevenson: \u201cHe\u2019s going to run a lot. Nine rounds.\u201d<br \/>\nRichardson Hitchins: \u201cSix rounds.\u201d<br \/>\nDalton Smith: \u201cOne round.\u201d<br \/>\nSubriel Matias: \u201cFour rounds.\u201d<br \/>\nIsaac Cruz: \u201cThree rounds.\u201d<br \/>\nKeyshawn Davis: \u201cThree rounds.\u201d<br \/>\nAntonio Moran: \u201cThree rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mercado looked outstanding in his last fight, knocking out former two-division world champion Jose Zepeda in four rounds in January 2025. No one had ever stopped Pedraza that fast, not even Gervonta Davis or Keyshawn Davis. It says a lot that Mercado was able to get him out quicker than those two.<\/p>\n<p>Matchroom\u2019s Problem<\/p>\n<p>Hearn hasn\u2019t said what his plans are for Mercado. He\u2019s got a lot of talented fighters in and around the 140-lb weight class that he could match him up with. However, it\u2019s questionable whether Hearn wants to keep Mercado away from his top fighters, like Richardson Hitchins and Dalton Smith, knowing that their value would plummet if they lost to him.<\/p>\n<p>James_theGrad is a U.S. Navy veteran and a college graduate with a Master\u2019s Degree in Organizational Leadership and a graduate certificate in Human Resources from Brandman University (formerly Chapman University). A dedicated family man and longtime boxing fan, James brings a disciplined, levelheaded approach to covering the sport. His analysis draws on years of following fighters, matchmaking trends, and championship landscapes with the sharp eye of a committed student of the game. You can find him discussing boxing daily on Twitter\/X at @James_theGrad.<\/p>\n<p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxingnews24.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Ernesto Mercado Returns Saturday, Predicts KO Wins Over 140-lb Stars<\/p>\n<p>Last Updated on 12\/11\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ernesto \u2018Tito\u2019 Mercado makes his return against Antonio Moran this Saturday, December 13th, on a Matchroom card at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-311675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}