By Francisco Salazar
The six round featherweight bout between Shakur Stevenson and David Michel Paz will open the three-bout' ESPN telecast Saturday night, it was told to BoxingScene.com earlier this week.
The Stevenson-Paz bout, which is taking place at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, will precede the 10 round light heavyweight bout between Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Craig Baker.
In the main event, Terence Crawford and Julius Indongo will square off in a 12 round junior welterweight unification bout. The ESPN telecast will begin at 10 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. PT.
There had been some confusion as to whether the Stevenson clash would air. The last ESPN telecast featured only two fights, which included Vasyl Lomachenko's knockout win over Miguel Marriaga and Ray Beltran's majority decision victory over Bryan Vasquez.
Stevenson (2-0, 1 KO) stopped Carlos Gaston Suarez in the opening round of his last bout on May 20 in New York City.
A 2016 U.S. Olympian who won a silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Stevenson trained for the fight in Colorado Springs, Colorado, away from his hometown of Newark, New Jersey.
"This is my third fight (of my pro career), so I'm looking for a superb performance," said Stevenson during this past week. "I feel great. I put in great rounds of sparring during training camp in Colorado and logged a ton of miles running, so I'm fully prepared to fight."
"I am just anxious to get into the ring and perform and keep getting better and better."
The 20-year-old Stevenson is co-managed by James Prince and Andre Ward.
"This is my first time fighting in Nebraska. I heard the arena in Lincoln in beautiful and I know the Nebraska fans love boxing."
"Terence fought in front of our family in his last fight so I am excited about fighting in front of his family in this fight. I know we are both going to put on quite a show."
Paz (4-3-1) will be fighting for the first time outside of Argentina. He last fought on May 6, losing by unanimous decision to Luis Roberto Mato.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing
