Brian Ceballo (11-0, 6 KOs), is an emerging welterweight, who is awaiting an opportunity on the big stage, and Thursday, December 3rd, on NBC Sports Network, will be the first step towards that as he fights career spoiler, Larry Gomez (10-1, 8 KOs), of Utah.

“This opportunity is amazing and I am grateful to everyone who has worked to put this show together,“ said Ceballo. “Larry Gomez is coming to fight, he is coming to win – he is as great as an opposition as I am [SIC].”

The welterweight division currently has an influx of new talent as Vergil Ortiz and Jaron “Boots” Ennis, have created quite a buzz with exciting performances and Ceballo is in prime position to be their contemporaries, if not rivals. 

Some background on Ceballo, he is smart, observant, and patient. Most fighters, even when making weight often overshare, Ceballo will under share, as he is mild-mannered and very cerebral. Each answer is well thought out, while using his words like Juan Manuel Marquez uses punches, very efficiently. 

“I was a little more independent as young kid,“ reflects Ceballo. “For example, I started going to school on my own, taking the train, at like seven-years of age, in New York, if I think about that now if I had a kid I would never send my kid on the train at seven-years of age.”

Ceballo’s opponent, Larry Gomez is the classic guy to avoid. Gomez hits hard, comes to win, and is coming off the biggest win of his career defeating FercoBox managed Brian Mendoza on a Top Rank card in a bout that Gomez took over. If you stalk Gomez’s IG, you can see Gomez trained with the man his loss came from, Kevin “Thunderstorm” Johnson in Las Vegas, Nevada. The big thing is – Gomez has talent and is coming to win, which makes him dangerous.

Ceballo is no stranger to hard fights though. He fought Bakhtiyar Eyubov, an undefeated puncher, in his ninth fight on Gennady Golovkin undercard, throwing 800 punches in that bout over the duration of eight-rounds. The bout was what Bay Area legendary manager Herb Stone (R.I.P.) would’ve call an “early assessment” of a fighter, but the thing is Eyubov was a high risk-low reward type (get paid less than you should, based upon the drawing power of your foe, but take on a formidable foe) bout in which Ceballo passed with flying colors.

“That was a big, big step-up for us,” Ceballo said reflecting on his fight with Eyubov on the Gennady Golovkin vs Steve Rolls undercard at The Garden in New York City. “No one would’ve taken that fight while having eight fights and in their first eight-rounder, against a guy like that, who had 12 knockouts, and didn’t lose once, everyone was doubting me in that fight.”

That experience, and dominant win, has only made Ceballo a much more experienced fighter, far beyond the numbers on his record.

At age 26, and showing maturity in-and-out of the ring, it is clear Ceballo is focused on going to the next level, and having a committed promoter, Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions helps as well. In fact, Ceballo is essentially the face of 360 Promotions, along with Serhii Bohachuk, who was the previous main eventer of this card before an illness made him step away, as Ceballo seems more polished and refined of the two. 

“I’ve said this always that Tom [Loefller] and I work well together,“ said Ceballo when reflecting on his promoter. “He has a selective amount of people that he works with, and I like that, and I am also selective with who I work with.”

Besides being a boxer, Ceballo is a business owner, as Bout Fight Club in New York City, New York, sees him barring co-ownership duties.

“So my coach and I actually own a gym, it is called Bout Fight Club,” said Ceballo. “Once we got a fight date, we started scheduling the gym, certain hours, we’d close the gym down, so no one from the public could come in so we could train properly without masks.”

As the second fight event put on by Ring City USA comes closer with Ceballo in the co-main event, starting at 9 PM EST on NBCSN, Ceballo shared some interesting insight into his why for the sport of boxing.

“I am here to impress myself more than anything,” said Ceballo honestly. “Yes, I am always going to impress my loved ones around me, the fans around the world, but at the end of the day, if I don’t win or do what I need to do, then I am going to be disappointed on myself.”