Jesus Cuellar vs. Ruben Tamayo: Fight Time, Date, Preview and TV Info

Interim WBA featherweight champion, Jesus Cuellar (25-1, 19 KO) is a power-punching force building a reputation as an exciting, action-packed fighter. He'll defend his interim strap on Saturday at the Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton, Washington against Ruben Tamayo (25-4-4, 17 KO).

As you can tell by this tweet from Adam Abramowitz of Saturday Night Boxing, Cuellar has his fans:

Cuellar is attempting to put himself in position to challenge the best featherweights in the world, and to potentially remove the interim tag from his title distinction. Nicholas "Axe Man" Walters holds the WBA super world title in the featherweight division.

Before Cuellar can think about becoming a legitimate world champion, he has to defeat Tamayo. Despite the fact that Tamayo has had 33 professional fights, he hasn't faced top-level competition in his career.

Can he seriously challenge Cuellar, or will this be a one-sided romp in favor of the 27-year-old southpaw from Argentina?

Here's how you can watch.

When: Saturday, Dec. 20 at 9 p.m.

Where: Little Creek Casino Resort, Shelton, Washington

TV: Showtime Extreme

Continue Ascending

Cuellar doesn't have a ton of notoriety in the sport. Most boxing fans outside of Argentina probably don't know who he is just yet. If he continues to win—especially with knockouts—his fame will grow. His 73 percent KO percentage is impressive, and it could improve if he can stay at featherweight.

Cuellar's style is crowd pleasing. You can see some similarities to he and Lucas Matthysse, another powerful Argentine. Because Cuellar is also a southpaw, there's another layer to his game. While the left is set up as his power hand, Cuellar has good power with either fist.

Former world champion Juan Manuel Lopez found that out the hard way in Cuellar's last fight.

The second-round stoppage gave Cuellar a win over a well-known fighter—even though Juan Ma is about as shopworn as can be at this point. If nothing else, it got Cuellar some positive attention, and it continued to move him toward bigger and better things.

Under the tutelage of esteemed trainer Robert Garcia, Cuellar is climbing the ladder.

The next step is to conquer Tamayo.

There to Compete or Simply Show Up

Only six of Tamayo's fights have been scheduled for as many as 10 rounds. In fact, his last four bouts haven't been slated for more than eight rounds.

The last full-length scheduled bout Tamayo had was against Jesus Ruiz in April 2013. Tamayo was knocked out in the ninth round of that fight. To give a clue as to how unknown Tamayo is, BoxRec.com didn't even have his age on file. 

I had an opportunity to watch his bout with Rugelio Jun Doliguez from July 2013. It ended in a draw, but Tamayo looked slow and fatigued in the latter rounds. That's not a good look considering he was knocked out in the ninth round of his fight scheduled to go 10 or more rounds.

These details bring up the question: "is this a fight Tamayo really believes he can win, or this simply a payday?" The answer to that question could determine the specific outcome of the bout.

Prediction

From a pure aggression standpoint, Cuellar looks to have Tamayo severely overmatched. Cuellar moves about the ring with power, distinction and purpose. From what I've seen of Tamayo, he tends to flounder more.

These are the types of fights that are made when an up-and-coming fighter needs work but isn't quite ready to challenge the best at the current moment.

The result will be bad news for Tamayo. He'll be lucky if he sees the fourth round in this one. Cuellar will win by KO.

Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter. I dig boxing and MMA.