Rashidi Ellis’ Return In January 2023 Could Mean We Will See More Of Him
It’s great to see top welterweight contender “Speedy” Rashidi Ellis (24-0, 15KO) return to the ring in the first quarter of 2023. The January 7 appearance on the under-card of Gervonta Davis vs Hector Luis Garcia will mark his second fight with PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) after a hellish period with Golden Boy Promotions.
What makes this so significant? Speedy has only fought three times in the last four years including 2022! The problem here, he’s clearly one of the more talented up & coming contenders in the sport. Furthermore, he is fighting in a stacked welterweight division where at one point, he was ranked in the top ten by all four major sanctioning bodies. However, the inactivity now has him ranked #9 by the IBF and #10 by the WBC.
It’s not like Ellis didn’t want to fight. For some reason, Golden Boy had the talented welterweight riding the end of the bench on the roster. You would think after he smacked-up two of the banner’s most promising prospects in Eddie Gomez (twice) and Alexis Rocha, Speedy would have been getting the same kind of publicity as his former stablemate Vergil Ortiz and Jaron “Boots” Ennis by now. Unfortunately, he continued to be ignored by the people who should have been promoting him.
Now things have changed. From 2018 to 2019 he had a year layoff. From 2019 to 2020 he had an eleven month layoff. Ellis completely skipped 2021, finally left Golden Boy and signed a deal with PBC by April. His new banner immediately put him to work in July where he destroyed journeyman Jose Murrofo in one round as expected. With him returning in January 2023, his layoff is now at the normal six months. This is a good sign because the early date could allow him to fight at least three times in 2023 like he did in 2018.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of the much deserved rise of Speedy Ellis. His opponent is hard-hitting Colombian Roiman Villa (25-1, 24KO). In his last fight, he made his US debut where he took the ‘0’ of another prospect in Janelson Figueroa. Not only is Speedy back…he’s in a tough match-up!
By: EJ Williams
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