Patrick Teixeira returned home and to the win column with his latest ring appearance.
The hope in the year ahead is to return to the contender stage.
The former WBO junior middleweight titlist ended a three-fight skid with a first-round knockout of Venezuela’s Adrian Perez this past Saturday at Hotel Golden Park in Sorocaba, Brazil. A double right hook put Perez down and out at 2:10 of the opening round, leaving Sao Paolo’s Teixeira with his first win on home soil since April 2018 and his first win of any kind since outpointing then-unbeaten Carlos Adames in their November 2019 interim WBO title fight.
I’m very happy for this victory in the first round,” Teixeira told BoxingScene.com. “I want to thank Golden Boy Promotions who, for me, is the best boxing promoter in the world. Thanks to them and to my sponsor Kaze Fuziyama, I was able to return to the ring in Brazil after more than four years.
“I’m ready for the big challenges in the USA.”
Teixeira (32-4, 23KOs) enjoyed a nice run to the title, including decision wins over Nathaniel Gallimore and Mario Alberto Lozano. A twelve-round nod over Adames in November 2019 came with the interim version of the WBO junior middleweight title, with Teixeira upgraded to full titlist just five days later upon learning that Jaime Munguia (41-0, 33KOs) vacated the belt to campaign in the middleweight division.
A successful defense never came of his 14-month title reign, with his oft-delayed title defense versus Argentina’s Brian Castano resulting in a lopsided twelve-round defeat last February.
Teixeira sat out for another 14 months, in part due to a twice-postponed bout with Magomed Kurbanov. The second postponement prompted Golden Boy to get the Brazilian back in the ring this past April 9, only for disaster to strike when he was disqualified in the second round of an intended stay busy fight with Paul Valenzuela on a Ryan Garcia undercard this past April 9 in San Antonio, Texas.
The fight with Kurbanov eventually made its way back to the schedule in July. Teixeira was floored in the opening round en route to a ten-round points loss to the unbeaten junior middleweight contender on the road in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
His win on Saturday is certainly a step in the right direction, though Teixeira is eager to return to the level preceding his previous losing streak. A move up in weight to fight Munguia is very much under consideration, as well as remaining put at 154 for showdowns with interim WBC titlist Sebastian Fundora (20-0-1, 13KOs) and WBA mandatory challenger Israil Madrimov (8-0-1, 6KOs) as part of his specific hit list.
“I can fight at 154 or 160, wherever the best opportunity is,” noted Teixeira.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox