http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/p...may-4-ppv-card
NEW YORK -- Had a chance to talk with Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer on Friday at the weigh-in for Saturday night’s Tavoris Cloud-Bernard Hopkins light heavyweight title fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He dropped a few solid nuggets:
• Leo Santa Cruz, who recently gave up his bantamweight world title to move up to junior featherweight, likely will appear on the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Robert Guerrero fight in one of the bouts featured on the Showtime PPV telecast. He said they’re working on a fight between Santa Cruz (23-0-1, 13 KOs) and faded former champ Rafael Marquez (41-8, 37 KOs). Marquez has been promoted by Zanfer and Top Rank -- the Golden Boy rival -- but Schaefer said Marquez is now a free agent and they are working on the fight.
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Also likely to appear on the PPV is J’Leon Love (16-0, 8 KOs), a middleweight prospect from Detroit who is promoted by Mayweather. One name they are discussing as a possible opponent is Gabriel Rosado, a longtime junior middleweight who was stopped on cuts in a January middleweight title bout by Gennady Golovkin.
The May 4 co-feature is already set: featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce De Leon defending against former junior featherweight titlist Abner Mares, who recently vacated his belt.
• The proposed junior welterweight title fight between Lamont Peterson and Lucas Matthysse is still being worked on, but Schaefer said the Peterson team wants the fight in his hometown of Washington, D.C., rather than Atlantic City, N.J., which is where Schaefer planned to bring it. He said Matthysse is reluctant to fight Peterson in his hometown, which is understandable because both of Matthysse’s losses came by split decision in the hometown of his opponents, Zab Judah and Devon Alexander. Schaefer said he is talking to both sides and seemed confident the fight would be finalized.
• Junior welterweight prospect Omar Figueroa (20-0-1, 16 KOs) likely will be in the opener of the Showtime doubleheader on April 20 headlined by the much-anticipated Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Austin Trout junior middleweight unification fight at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Figueroa is from Weslaco, Texas. He is coming off a 47-second wipeout of Henry Aurad last week in San Antonio, where he has a nice fan following. Figueroa is untested but Schaefer said, “We want him to fight a real opponent on that (April 20) card.”
NEW YORK -- Had a chance to talk with Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer on Friday at the weigh-in for Saturday night’s Tavoris Cloud-Bernard Hopkins light heavyweight title fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He dropped a few solid nuggets:
• Leo Santa Cruz, who recently gave up his bantamweight world title to move up to junior featherweight, likely will appear on the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Robert Guerrero fight in one of the bouts featured on the Showtime PPV telecast. He said they’re working on a fight between Santa Cruz (23-0-1, 13 KOs) and faded former champ Rafael Marquez (41-8, 37 KOs). Marquez has been promoted by Zanfer and Top Rank -- the Golden Boy rival -- but Schaefer said Marquez is now a free agent and they are working on the fight.
ESPN.com Boxing on Twitter
Don't miss any of our wall-to-wall boxing coverage, including live analysis of Saturday's fights. Join »
Also likely to appear on the PPV is J’Leon Love (16-0, 8 KOs), a middleweight prospect from Detroit who is promoted by Mayweather. One name they are discussing as a possible opponent is Gabriel Rosado, a longtime junior middleweight who was stopped on cuts in a January middleweight title bout by Gennady Golovkin.
The May 4 co-feature is already set: featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce De Leon defending against former junior featherweight titlist Abner Mares, who recently vacated his belt.
• The proposed junior welterweight title fight between Lamont Peterson and Lucas Matthysse is still being worked on, but Schaefer said the Peterson team wants the fight in his hometown of Washington, D.C., rather than Atlantic City, N.J., which is where Schaefer planned to bring it. He said Matthysse is reluctant to fight Peterson in his hometown, which is understandable because both of Matthysse’s losses came by split decision in the hometown of his opponents, Zab Judah and Devon Alexander. Schaefer said he is talking to both sides and seemed confident the fight would be finalized.
• Junior welterweight prospect Omar Figueroa (20-0-1, 16 KOs) likely will be in the opener of the Showtime doubleheader on April 20 headlined by the much-anticipated Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Austin Trout junior middleweight unification fight at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Figueroa is from Weslaco, Texas. He is coming off a 47-second wipeout of Henry Aurad last week in San Antonio, where he has a nice fan following. Figueroa is untested but Schaefer said, “We want him to fight a real opponent on that (April 20) card.”
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