By Jake Donovan
With November 21 rapidly approaching, the finishing touches are still being applied to the supporting cast to the most anticipated fight of the second half of 2015.
Headlining the event, World middleweight champion Miguel Cotto faces Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez in a bout that will air live on Pay-Per-View. The undercard features the following stellar matchups:
• Takashi Miura defending his super featherweight belt versus unbeaten Francisco Vargas
• Jayson Velez facing Ronny Rios in a featherweight crossroads bouts
• Randy Caballero returning to the ring, putting his unbeaten record and bantamweight title on the line versus interim champ Lee Haskins
Miura-Vargas and Velez-Rios are confirmed to grace the PPV undercard, while Caballero-Haskins will air on the “free-view” portion of fight night coverage preceding the telecast.
Original plans called for unbeaten super middleweight king Andre Ward to making his formal debut as a full-fledged light heavyweight, although there existed struggles in securing a suitable opponent. Efforts to piece together a fight deemed acceptable by the Nevada State Athletic Commission were eventually mooted once Ward withdrew after reportedly suffering a knee injury during training.
For now, three bouts remain on the telecast, while Caballero-Haskins remains in the free-view slot. As for that promised fourth fight of the PPV event?
"Not yet,” Golden Boy founder/CEO Oscar de la Hoya told media during a recent conference call when asked of a confirmed fight to fill the void left behind by Ward. “We're still discussing that with Roc Nation, so we will have an answer for (the media) shortly."
Logic would suggest bumping up Caballero-Haskins – a terrific bantamweight matchup – to the telecast, but anything in boxing is never that easy. As Golden Boy Promotions represents Alvarez (45-1-1, 32KOs) and Roc Nation Sports currently promotes Cotto (40-4, 33KOs), each are promised a certain number of slots on the undercard.
Caballero and Vargas are both promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, as is Rios. Velez is co-promoted by Golden Boy and Promociones Miguel Cotto – which, these days, runs in association with Roc Nation.
Ward is also part of Roc Nation family, with the unbeaten champ and Cotto signing earlier this year. Because of that, Roc Nation gets final say in who lands the final showcase appearance. Their relatively thin stable leaves little from which to choose, perhaps even less so in the wake of Steve Kim’s earlier report of RNS planning a December 5 show in Kissimmee (FL), to air live on HBO Latino.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
