Golden Boy To Have at Least 24 Shows in ESPN Platforms in 2018

By Steve Kim

This Thursday night from Cancun, Mexico another edition of 'Golden Boy on ESPN' takes place that features a junior bantamweight contest between Jose Martinez and Jesus Martinez, and prospects Vergil Ortiz and Alexis Rocha will be featured on the undercard.

Last year, Golden Boy Promotions struck a deal to have shows on the various platforms on ESPN and 2018 is already being mapped out.

Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy advised BoxingScene.com - "We've got our dates already, we're looking at them with ESPN. They gave us the dates, we try to adjust where we need to and then we go from there. But we've already got our dates."

So just how many shows will there be?

"There's a guarantee of 24 with the potential of maybe doing a couple more,"answered Gomez, who added,"but it depends on if they're championship caliber fights, special events. But for sure it's 24."

ESPN will be televising Golden Boy cards on November 30th and December 14th to close out 2017.

On the November 30th show, Lamont Roach, Jr. (15-0, 6 KOs) will make his headlining debut as he defends his WBC Youth Super Featherweight Title against Filipino contender Rey "Flash" Perez (21-8, 6 KOs) at the MGM National Harbor in Maryland.

In the co-main event, Jose "Wonder Boy" Lopez (18-1-1, 13 KOs) of Carolina, Puerto Rico will make his return as he takes on Miguel "Miguelito" Gonzalez (21-3, 18 KOs) of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico for the WBO International Super Featherweight Title. And Manuel "Tino" Avila (22-1, 8 KOs) will round out the TV card, and he will take on Raul "El Bule" Hidalgo (26-15, 19 KOs) of Chihuahua, Mexico in a 10-round featherweight event.

 ESPN3 (English) and ESPN Deportes (Spanish) will transmit the fights live at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT. Undercard transmission airs on ESPN3 at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.ESPN2 will air the fight at 11 p.m.ET/8 p.m. PT.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.