As per tradition there will be a three fight undercard leading up to the major middleweight title fight between “GGG” Gennady Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on HBO PPV. I am happy to report that at least against the usual low standards of pay per view undercards past, this is a pretty good one.
The co-main event of the card will pit unbeatens against one another in a world title eliminator. Top Golden Boy prospect Joseph “JoJo” Diaz, Jr. (24-0, 13 KOs) will take on top PBC prospect Jorge Lara (29-0-2, 21 KOs) WBC featherweight title eliminator over twelve rounds. That is the belt currently held by Gary Russell Jr, meaning the winner will be in line to face him. This is a really good matchup of top prospects with serious implications going forward. This is an excellent fight.
The middle fight of the trio is also a really good one. Former IBF bantamweight titleholder Randy Caballero (24-0, 14 KOs) will meet also unbeaten Diego De La Hoya (19-0, 9 KOs), cousin to Oscar over ten rounds. Caballero lost his belt on the scale a while back now and has been working his way back up. This is Golden Boy pitting two of their unbeaten fighters against one another where one has to take a loss. This is a huge step up for De La Hoya too as well, a guy you’d expect them to be protecting. More good matchmaking here.
Unfortunately, we can’t go four for four on a card. Opening the HBO PPV will be lightweight prospect Ryan Martin (19-0, 11 KOs) against Francisco Rojo (20-2, 13 KOs). Martin is a prospect, I guess, but he hasn’t been a very interesting one. Rojo is an unknown. This one is a dud. Making this worse is that Jesus M Rojas (25-1-2, 18 KOs) and Claudio Marrero (22-1, 16 KOs) are fighting off the broadcast which is a much better fight. Hopefully there will be a way to catch that one.
UPDATE: Rojas/Marrero will headline an ESPN2 card the night before the PPV.
Source: Golden Boy press release
