Raymundo Beltran stood in the boxing ring in Reno, Nevada, on Feb. 16 following a grueling, grinding fight with Paulus Moses as they waited for ring announcer Michael Buffer to read the scorecards.
For the fourth time, Beltran was bidding for a world title in what figured to be his final opportunity, and yet he felt a sense of serenity.
“I knew I won the fight,” Beltran told ESPN this week. “I knew it would be fair judging. It wasn’t like I was the opponent fighting in somebody’s hometown. I had no doubt about it.”
Moments later Buffer delivered the scores: 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112, all in favor of Beltran, who had won a vacant lightweight world title. His team lifted him in the air, the belt was thrown over his shoulder and Beltran became emotional.
The long, hard struggle of his 19-year up-and-down career had finally been fulfilled.
“With the victory, finally, everything I worked for, everything I dreamed about is becoming reality the past few years,” he said. “I have a home for my family. I’m about to get my green card. I’m getting some other opportunities outside of boxing because of boxing. Life has been great to me lately.
“I always believed and knew I could be a world champion. I wasn’t surprised but it was taking too long. It was always one thing or another. Always some obstacle. But when it happened I was like, finally, I got it! But there were so many feelings and emotions at the same time. It’s hard for me to describe. There are so many champions who get so many belts, but I think my belt is way more precious for me than all the belts they have. It was such a hard time to get it.”
So overjoyed to have finally claimed an elusive world title, Beltran — with apologies to his wife — slept with the belt wrapped in his arms that night.
“Before it was a dream, now it’s a reality,” he said. “I used to go to bed dreaming about that belt. Now I’m lying in bed with that belt in my arms.”
As hard as it was to win the 135-pound title, Beltran, previously best known as the longtime chief sparring partner for Manny Pacquiao, now faces the equally difficult task of trying to keep it. He will make his first defense against highly regarded former junior lightweight world titleholder Jose “Sniper” Pedraza on Saturday (ESPN and ESPN Deportes, 10:30 p.m. ET) at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. The entire card will stream live on ESPN+ beginning at 7:30 ET.
“With the victory, finally, everything I worked for, everything I dreamed about is becoming reality the past few years. I have a home for my family. I’m about to get my green card. I’m getting some other opportunities outside of boxing because of boxing. Life has been great to me lately.”
Raymundo Beltran
Beltran (35-7-1, 21 KOs), 37, married with three children, is from Mexico but has lived for 16 years in Phoenix, a few minutes from Glendale, and he is overjoyed to have his first defense at home. He has not fought in the area since a 2005 bout on a Hector Camacho undercard in Tucson.
“It’s a big deal. All my dreams are coming true,” Beltran said. “It was always a dream to defend my title in my hometown. Now I’m defending my title, and it’s against a Puerto Rican, a legendary rivalry, Mexico against Puerto Rico. So there’s nothing better than that. I’m very excited and can’t wait.”
Steve Feder has managed Beltran for nine years and he and the entire team were overcome with emotion when Beltran claimed the title.
“It was so emotional,” Feder said. “I think it took him a good month before it settled in. It’s almost like it was hard for him to believe. Then he realized, ‘I’m here.’ I think that night was incredibly special for everyone involved. The whole team got emotional. We all cried. Who would have ever thought we’d reach this point? We believed in him from day one, but the waves were against us, but we kept pushing and believing.
“We all had to take some time to let it sink in. We were all part of this for so long. But this is the ultimate. He was an 19-year overnight success. A long time coming. He never gave up, never quit. I’m very, very proud of him.”
Initially, Beltran’s fight on Saturday was supposed to be a unification bout with pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko. But when Lomachenko won his title by knocking out Jorge Linares in the 10th round, he suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery. Then Beltran was going to make a mandatory defense against Russian Roman Andreev, but he wound up withdrawing because of his own medical issues.
That put Pedraza (24-1, 12 KOs), 29, of Puerto Rico, who had signed with Top Rank earlier this year, next in line and the fight was quickly made.
“I think it will be a very tough fight. He’s a good fighter,” Beltran said of Pedraza, who has won two fights in a row since losing his junior lightweight crown to Gervonta Davis in January 2017 and then moving up weight. “He has a lot of experience. He’s a former world champion. I really expect a tough fight.”
Beltran said he would have liked to face Lomachenko immediately, but he’s OK waiting. Lomachenko is expected to return on Dec. 1 to fight the Beltran-Pedraza winner at The Forum in Inglewood, California, in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card.
“I’m mentally prepared to fight anybody,” Beltran said. “Obviously, I want the fight with Lomachenko, but I have faith I’ll take care of business (Saturday) and hopefully after that we fight Lomachenko. I’m not taking Pedraza lightly at all. I’m not even thinking about Lomachenko right now. But that’s a goal. But first I have to beat Pedraza.”
Said Feder: “Lomachenko is definitely who we want. The point of this fight [with Pedraza] is to get to that fight. We’re not looking past it, but he’s in our way for the payday. The point is to get past him, and we’ll look forward to the opportunity to fight Lomachenko. This sets up the big fight that could really help Ray and his family for many years to come.
“The sunset is closer than the sunrise on his career, so we need to get him paid. We didn’t come all this way to play around.”
Perhaps Beltran is not focused on Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs), 30, of Ukraine, but he forcefully said he thinks he can defeat the three-division world titleholder and two-time Olympic gold medalist whose only defeat came to former two-division titleist Orlando Salido in Lomachenko’s second pro fight.
“I don’t see Lomachenko like everybody does,” Beltran said. “He’s a great fighter. I respect him and I appreciate his great talent. But he’s not unbeatable. He’s another human being just like me. Orlando Salido beat him, and I’m bigger than Salido, I’m stronger than Salido. Why shouldn’t I beat him? I believe I can make it happen.”
Whatever happens against Pedraza or potentially with Lomachenko down the road, Beltran, whose quest for a green card has been well-documented and faces only one last hurdle of an in-person interview with immigration officials, has finally reached the pinnacle of boxing in one of the sport’s feel-good stories.
Beltran said his life since winning the belt hasn’t changed much and that he remains his same humble self.
“The money isn’t like Canelo [Alvarez], [Manny] Pacquiao or [Floyd] Mayweather. I wish it was, but I’m getting paid well,” a laughing Beltran said. “Things changed a little bit around me. People treat me a little bit different. But me as a person, I feel the same. It’s a big accomplishment to become a world champion. It was important for me to reach that goal. But other than that I feel like I’m the same guy. I don’t go walking the streets expecting people to know who I am. Sometimes people stop me and get excited and I really appreciate it.”
The one thing, however, that has changed?
“I get more invitations to go to eat now, to go to dinner,” Beltran said with another hearty laugh. “I tell my wife, you know what? Let’s go right now because when this is over I’m going to have pay again.”
There’s also another world title fight in the co-feature as junior featherweight titlist Isaac Dogboe (19-0, 13 KOs), 23, of Ghana, who won a 122-pound belt on April 28 in Philadelphia by knocking out Jessie Magdaleno in the 11th round of an enthralling fight of the year candidate, will make his first defense against Hidenori Otake (31-2-3, 14 KOs), 37, of Japan.