Easton, Pa is recognizably known as the city where former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes is from. Since Holmes time, there have been no known names to have caught the eyes of residence in the city to stand out in the sport of boxing.
For a while now, a local fighter by the name of, Arturo Trujillo has drawn the attention of many. As an amateur, Trujillo was widely known in the area as the next huge name coming out of Easton, Pa. He faced the likes of Jose Benavidez, Robert Easter Jr, Tony Harrison and Amir Imam in the amateurs, even winning the 2011 Golden Gloves Championship at 152 pounds.
The Easton native has all the ingredients a boxing fan could ask for. He’s a slick, fast and technical southpaw, is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, and produces electrifying and exciting fights. Since going Pro in June of 2013, Trujillo has scored 6 wins with 3 knockouts. His debut stole the show at the Sands Casino on the undercard of Jennings vs. Fedosov when he knocked out Anthony Watson in 27 seconds in highly impressive fashion that even received TV time.
Trujillo and Watson were the swing bout of the night and when Sergey Kovalev, who was a part of the televised triple header that night, finished Cornelious White early. Trujillo was brought out next and surely delivered.
Fast forward into 2015 and unlike most upcoming exciting prospects, Trujillo is having a hard time getting fights and showcasing his skill to the public. Though he had an impressive 2013, fighting 4x in just 6 months, he’s only fought twice in 2014. He was slotted to appear on the undercard of a Top Rank Solo Boxeo card that was staged at the Sands, before being scratched from the card when his opponent failed a drug test.
By now, some of the locals who know him well and even local media outlets, including myself, would have expected someone to snatch Trujillo and get him the fights and platform he so rightfully deserves, but it’s been difficult as all his fights were held at the Sands, he hasn’t left the area much. That is until RocNation got a hold of him.
There were rumors and speculation that Jay Z’s newly formed promotion company, Roc Nation Sports was interested in Trujillo. Though many details were not released, I asked Trujillo if indeed they were in talks, to which he responded, “We talked, but I don’t know yet. It might happen though.”
Trujillo is slotted to make a return on April 17th in Atlantic City on a Roc Nation card. No venue has been reported for the card yet but is expected to be headlined by Dusty Harrison.
