The featherweight division is one of the deepest in boxing with stars like Vasyl Lomachenko, Nicholas Walters and Jhonny Gonzalez at the top of the list. On Saturday night, WBA interim featherweight champion Jesus “El Jinete” Cuellar (26-1, 20 KOs) of Argentina added his name to the mix with a fifth-round knockout over Ruben “Kanelito” Tamayo (23-5-4, 17 KOs) in Shelton, Washington.

“I really wanted to make a good impression on the fans tonight and I’m looking forward to fighting often again next year,” Cuellar said afterward. “There are a lot of possibilities, but I think the fighter I’d like to fight is Abner Mares, who I met recently in Las Vegas. He approached me and we took a picture together and then he tweeted it out, saying he wanted to fight me. Well, I’d like to fight him, too. It would be a really exciting fight for the fans.”

Cuellar’s trainer Robert Garcia, says Cuellar is still a work-in-progress and will continue to improve. “We haven’t seen the best of Cuellar, not by a longshot,” Garcia said. “He’s making good progress from fight to fight, but still has things to learn. Little by little, though, he is getting better. There is not a fighter as dedicated as he is. He’s very disciplined, trains hard, spars hard and does everything to the extreme. With more time, I really expect great things out of him.”