The Chris Colbert-Jose Valenzuela rematch has been added to the final “Showtime Championship Boxing” broadcast scheduled for next month.

BoxingScene.com has learned that the second lightweight bout between Colbert (17-1, 6 KOs) and Valenzuela (12-2, 8 KOs) will be part of a Premier Boxing Champions tripleheader Showtime will televise December 16 from The Armory in Minneapolis. Cuban southpaw David Morrell Jr. (9-0, 8 KOs) will defend the WBA’s secondary super middleweight title against Ghana’s Sena Agbeko (28-2, 20 KOs) in the 12-round main event of that telecast.

The Colbert-Valenzuela rematch was supposed to be part of a Showtime Pay-Per-View event PBC planned to put on December 9 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. That show was scrapped, which led to PBC placing the second Colbert-Valenzuela bout on the last Showtime boxing broadcast.

Paramount Global, which owns Showtime and BoxingScene.com, announced October 17 that the premium cable network will not broadcast boxing beyond 2023. The closure of Showtime Sports will bring its 37-year run as one of the sport’s most prominent broadcasters to an end.

Colbert beat Valenzuela by unanimous decision in Colbert’s lightweight debut March 25. His narrow win was widely viewed as controversial, however, and the Brooklyn native acknowledged a need to fight Mexico’s Valenzuela again.

It initially looked like Valenzuela would overpower Colbert, whom he dropped with a counter left less than 30 seconds into their fight on the David Benavidez-Caleb Plant pay-per-view undercard at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Colbert didn’t just get up, he made their fight very competitive thereafter and left the ring victorious.

All three judges – Glenn Feldman, Lisa Giampa and Don Trella – scored six rounds apiece for Colbert and credited him for an identical 95-94 win. An angered Valenzuela vehemently protested the official result during his post-fight interview, but he will get the opportunity to avenge his second straight defeat.

Dominican southpaw Edwin De Los Santos knocked out Valenzuela in the third round of Valenzuela’s previous fight. Valenzuela was knocked down once apiece by De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) in the second and third rounds before their 10-round bout was stopped on the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Luis Ortiz undercard in September 2022 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.