Ramon Cardenas is ready for his return following a valiant losing effort against Naoya Inoue in May.

Cardenas will face Erik Robles on December 19 at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to headline a ProBox TV event on YouTube, it was announced on Monday.

Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) is one of the sport's feel-good stories of the year, quickly graduating from a cab driver to a world title contender.

Cardenas, a 30-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, came in as a massive underdog to challenge Inoue for the undisputed junior featherweight crown and crushed the Japanese pound-for-pound star with a left hook that floored him in the second round of their fight.

Cardenas showed a solid account of himself in a firefight and even won another round or two before getting stopped in the eighth round of their Cinco De Mayo weekend showdown at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Over the summer, Cardenas aimed to leverage his newfound position in the division to welcome Junto Nakatani for the three-weight champion’s first fight at 122 pounds in December, but the fight never came to be.

Robles (16-3, 10 KOs), a 25-year-old who's primarily fought in the Tijuana, Mexico boxing circuit, has one win and two losses over his last three outings.

Liam Davies stopped Robles in two rounds in March 2024 and also lost his most recent outing, a 10-round unanimous decision against Jesus Eduardo Arechiga Valdez in March.

Other fights on the Cardenas-Robles undercard will include: