2021 Dominican Olympian Rohan Polanco returns to action in a ten-round welterweight contest against Quinton Randall on Saturday, July 26th at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Polanco will be joined on the undercard by his countryman, featherweight Yan Santana, who will make his New York City debut in a ten-rounder versus former world title challenger Aaron Alameda of Mexico. Polanco-Randall and Santana-Alameda will be part of the ESPN+-streamed undercard before the ESPN-televised tripleheader (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) headlined by the vacant WBO junior middleweight title fight between Xander Zayas and Jorge Garcia. Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Zanfer Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions, tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster.com.
Polanco (16-0, 10 KOs) is riding high on the strength of May’s shutout decision over Fabian Maidana in Las Vegas. He represented his homeland at the Tokyo Olympics and is now poised to carry his nation’s flag in the paid ranks. Polanco trains with Hector Bermudez in Springfield, Massachusetts and was 8-0 before signing with Top Rank in 2023. He went 3-0 in 2024 before kicking off his 2025 campaign in February with a second-round knockout of Puerto Rico’s Jean Carlos Torres.
Randall (15-2-1, 3 KOs), from Houston, is 2-1 since a 2023 decision loss to Brian Norman Jr. on an ESPN show.
Santana (14-0, 12 KOs), who is co-promoted by Miguel Cotto Promotions, spent much of his early career fighting in Cotto’s homeland of Puerto Rico. The 25-year old appeared on his first Top Rank card last June, grinding down Brandon Valdes en route to a unanimous decision. He last fought in April in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, winning all ten rounds against Mexico’s Edwin Palomares. Alameda (30-2, 17 KOs) dropped a unanimous decision to Luis Nery in 2020 for the WBC 122-pound title. He has won five straight, four by stoppage, since a 2021 decision loss to Angelo Leo.
In other ESPN+ streamed undercard action:
Heavyweight Bakhodir Jalolov (15-0, 14 KOs), a two-time Olympic heavyweight for Uzbekistan, will make his first stateside appearance in nearly two years when he battles Italy’s Gianmarco Cardillo (12-1-2, 2 KOs) in a scheduled ten-rounder. Jalolov dominated the super heavyweight bracket at the 2024 Paris Olympics and came back to the pro ranks in April with a decision over Ihor Shevadzutskyi.
Emerging junior bantamweight Steven “Kid Dynamite” Navarro (6-0, 5 KOs), from Inglewood, California, will fight in his second scheduled eight-rounder against Cristopher Rios (11-2, 7 KOs). Navarro has been on the fast track to contention since turning pro last April with a sixth-round stoppage over Jose Lopez.
