IT’S A “HOMECOMING” FOR FIVE-TIME WORLD TITLE CHALLENGER MARICELA CORNEJO FRIDAY, AUGUST 8 AT LEGENDS CASINO
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 05 Aug 2025
Also Featured are Fellow Local Andrew Murphy, Chris “The Hybrid” Yung, and Joshua Juarez
Plus “The Roy Jones Jr. Experience” as Roy will Perform Some of his Hits to Open the Show and During an Intermission
August 4, 2025, Toppenish, WA – Maricela “La Diva” Cornejo, born and raised just down the road from Legends Casino Hotel and ranked No. 2 in the world by the World Boxing Association (WBA) and No. 7 by the World Boxing Council (WBC), will fight in front of hundreds of family and friends in a “Homecoming” on Friday, August 8.
Roy Jones Jr. will open the show with one of his favorites “Ya’ll Must’ve Forgot”. If you did happen to forget that track you can watch it here. He will then do a set during a fifteen-minute intermission between the third and fourth fights of the night. A grand finale will follow the final bout of the evening.
The Legends Casino Hotel doors open at 6 pm PT and THE SHOW begins at 7 pm PT / 10 pm ET. Tickets, price from $50, are available at the Legends Casino Hotel Gift Shop and at Ticketmaster here.
Beginning at 10 pm ET, the complete event will be streamed live on our YouTube channel RJJBOXING as well as numerous boxing and combat and ROKU channels. Make sure to subscribe to RJJBOXING so as not to miss any lead up to the event.
Cornejo will battle Canadian Natasha “The Nightmare” Spence in a six-round middleweight bout. In the co-featured bout, local favorite Andrew Murphy will battle Jeremiah Sierra in an eight-round super middleweight bout. Also, Joshua Juarez in a six-round heavyweight bout against Oscar “Raton” Cortes; and Chris “The Hybrid” Young in a six-round lightweight bout against local product Derick Funkhouser; and opening the show will be a local junior middleweight scrap between Jovanis Rodgriguez and Alvin Welch.
“Looking forward to our show at Legends Casino Hotel, and the debut, for me, Maricela Cornejo who is a great fighter from the area and we are looking forward to having her on our card,” said Roy Jones Jr. “And once again, we have hometown, undefeated, all-action fighter Andrew Murphy who has never disappointed a crowd. One of my faves, Chris “The Hybrid” Jones, is back in the house, who when he came to me fought like Tyson, so I taught him a little Roy Jones Jr. and now he is a hybrid. It’s going to be an awesome night of boxing so whatever you do, don’t miss it.”
“And, just for sake, because you are such loyal fans I am going to add to the process, the RJJR Experience, you feel me? Body Head will be in the building. Be on the lookout.”
Maricela “La Diva” Cornejo (19-7, 7 KOs) was born in nearby Prosser and raised in Grandview, Washington, both just a thirty-minute drive from Legends. She made her professional debut in 2012 and in just her fifth bout, Maricela won the WBC International super middleweight title. In her following bout (fight #6) she traveled to New Zealand to fight for the WBC World Middleweight title but lost. After winning eight straight, Maricela fought for the WBC Super Middleweight title against Franchon Crews Duzern and one year later she fought a rematch against Crews Duzern this time for the WBO and WBA supermiddleweight beltsfinishing on the wrong side each time. On June 3, 2023, Cornejo battled Claressa Shields for the Undisputed World Middleweight Championship – 5 belts on the line, but succumbed. In her last bout, August 10, 2024, she fought former Undisputed World Champion Cecilia Breakhus for the WBC Interim World Title. Maricela has since had a child and with a win will once again fight for a world title.
Cornejo said: “Beyond excited to fight in front of my hometown!! It has been a goal of mine to come back here where I grew up and have all my family be able to take a 30 min drive to watch me fight. Looking forward to putting on a great show come Aug 8th.”
Natasha “The Nightmare” Spence (8-8, 6 KOs) and hails from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada and has been fighting professionally since 2010. She fought for, but lost, in a WBA and WBO super welterweight world title fight, in 2017.
Undefeated and the pride on Central Washington, Andrew Murphy (10-0, 7 KOs) is from nearby Yakima, a medium distance walk from Legends Casino Hotel. Murphy, fighting for the third time since shoulder surgery, is coming off an impressive seventh round knockout in April. He will battle fellow Washingtonian Jeremiah Sierra (4-2, 1 KO).
Chris Young (1-0, 1 KO) from Hattiesburg, Mississippi will fight in a six-round lightweight bout against Oregon’s Derick Funkhouser (0-1). “Chris Young is a hybrid,” said Jones. “How can you put Tyson and Jones together? He did, so don’t miss this fight.”
Opening the Show at 10 pm ET / 7 pm PT will be local turf war between Tacoma, Washington’s Jovanis Rodriguez Pallares (1-0, 1 KO) against fellow Washington product Alvin Welch (0-1).
ROY JONES JR. was world champion at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight (undisputed) and in 2003 became the first former middleweight world champion to become world heavyweight champion in over 106 years when he beat John Ruiz to win the title. Throughout that stretch he was recognized as the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He now trains over a dozen boxers.
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