Orlando Salido has his replacement opponent for his December 9th HBO main event following the drop out of Miguel Berchelt. Miguel “Micky” Roman might not bring the same deep toolbox as the original scheduled opponent, but he will likely bring war. We also have an announced Miguel Cotto/Sadam Ali co-feature, a PBC on FS1 built off former stars, and some early talk about a Super Fly sequel card.
- HBO’s December 2nd farewell to Miguel Cotto show has its co-feature. We have known for a while that WBC super bantamweight titlist Rey Vargas (30-0, 22 KO) would be in it and now we know he will be meeting 30 year old Colombian Golden Boy prospect Oscar Negrete (17-0, 7 KOs). Negrete is a minor bantamweight prospect and has never even fully fought at the weight of this title fight, but it is happening anyway. HBO’s standards sure are not what they were.
- Friday, December 8th will bring an interesting PBC on FS1 special event featuring both former light heavyweight titlists and former foes Jean Pascal (31-5-1, 18 KOs) and Chad Dawson (35-4, 19 KOs) in separate fights. Both of these men are downright desperate for wins at this point and neither should come easy on this night if either come at all. Dawson will be meeting all action former title challenger Edwin Rodriguez (29-2, 20 KOs) while PBC prospect Ahmed Elbiali (16-0, 13 KOs) will get his first crack at a big name in the main event.
- The December 9th HBO card is nearly fully formed. In the main event, action stars Orlando Salido (44-13-4, 31 KOs) and Mickey Roman (57-12, 44 KOs) will meet in a near sure fire great fight. This saves the show following Miguel Berchelt’s drop out, meaning Tevin Farmer (25-4-1, 5 KOs) and Kenichi Ogawa’s (22-1, 17 KOs) vacant IBF junior lightweight title fight still has a home. It is also being rumored that Francisco Vargas (23-1-2, 17 KOs) will be added to the card to turn it into a tripleheader, maybe against England’s Stephen Smith (25-3, 15 KOs).
- Finally, the sequel show to HBO’s successful September super flyweight themed show is being tentatively set for February 24th. Its main event is almost guaranteed to pit Chocolatito conqueror Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (44-4-1, 40 KOs) against top contender Juan Francisco Estrada (36-2, 25 KOs) in defense of the Thai boxer’s title. There are many directions the undercard could go in such a deep division. All we really know is that “Monster” Inoue won’t be on it as he wants to participate in Japan’s annual New Year’s Eve show tradition.
