Red Owl Boxing to stage first women’s title fight in El Paso, Texas

Red Owl Boxing will present its first live event featuring a women’s title fight when Boxfest XXI takes place in El Paso, Texas, on Friday, Oct. 2. The show will be held at El Paso County Coliseum, with the main card scheduled to stream on DAZN from 10 p.m. ET, or 8 p.m. MT.

The vacant Women’s Boxing Association North American Boxing Association super flyweight championship will be contested over eight rounds. Undefeated Melanie Timko, who has a 5-0 record, will meet Naomy “Kusa” Cardenas, a former world title challenger with a 10-2 record and two knockout victories.

Timko is 41 and comes from Omaha, Nebraska. The fight will be her first scheduled eight-round contest after she went six rounds in each of her previous two appearances. Cardenas, 27, is from Chihuahua, Mexico, and is ranked 14th by the International Boxing Federation.

Cardenas made her first world-title appearance on Aug. 15, 2025, challenging Mizuki Hiruta for the World Boxing Organization super flyweight championship. She took the reigning champion through all 10 rounds. Hiruta was named the 2025 Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year.

The co-main event will feature unbeaten super featherweight Deonte “Lay ‘Em Down” Brown against Leonardo Padilla. Brown, 30, is 18-0 with 11 knockouts and will make his second Red Owl Boxing appearance of the year after defeating Yohan “La Fiera” Vasquez by unanimous decision on May 29. He is trained by former heavyweight contender Dominick Guinn.

Padilla, 34, is a Venezuelan from Petare with a 25-7-1 record and 17 knockouts. He enters the contest after a unanimous-decision win over Manuel Correa on May 16. Tickets for Boxfest XXI are available through Ticketmaster, while further bouts for the card are due to be announced.