An unbeaten California favorite and one of England’s top young stars will face stern tests on SHOWTIME EXTREME this Saturday, July 28 as the network presents Hugo “The Boss” Centeno vs. Ayi Bruce and George Groves vs. Francisco Sierra in separate eight round preliminary fights that will lead into the highly anticipated Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero vs. Selcuk “Mini Tyson” Aydin world title showdown at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
Guerrero vs. Aydin, is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBC Interim Welterweight World Championship. The SHOWTIME Championship Boxing telecast will air live at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT with Shawn Porter facing Alfonso Gomez for the NABO Welterweight title in the co-featured fight and preliminary bouts to air live on SHOWTIME EXTREME® at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Unbeaten junior middleweight Hugo “The Boss” Centeno (14-0, 8 KO’s) will travel up the California coast from his home in Oxnard to introduce Bay Area fight fans to one of the sport’s most exciting young prospects. A professional since 2009 who has an exciting style and a willingness to go toe-to-toe with anyone, the 21-year-old is 3-0 with two knockouts thus far in 2012. Looking to stop Centeno from getting another victory will be 26-year-old Ghana veteran Ayi Bruce (14-7, 8 KO’s) who now resides in Albany, New York. Clearly Centeno’s toughest test yet, Bruce’s fights against Ishe Smith, Shamone Alvarez and Raymond Serrano have proven that he fears no man in the ring.
A former amateur star and current stablemate of heavyweight contender David Haye, London’s George Groves (14-0, 11 KO’s) is one of the United Kingdom’s best hopes for future world title honors and having already won the Commonwealth and British titles at super middleweight, his time is coming soon. Making his second United States appearance on July 28, the 24-year-old Groves will square off against hard-hitting Francisco Sierra (24-5-1, 22 KO’s) of Tepic, Mexico. The owner of wins over Jose Luis Lopez and Donovan George, Sierra is unbeaten in six of his last eight fights and will look to halt the meteoric rise of Groves this weekend.
In other undercard action, highly-regarded junior featherweight prospect Manuel “Tino” Avila (7-0, 2 KO’s) of Fairfield, California makes his second start of 2012 against Northridge’s Raymond Chacon (4-3) in a six round fight. Plus, California middleweights Paul Mendez (7-2-1, 2 KO’s) of Delano and Leshon Simms (5-10, 3 KO’s) of Inglewood meet in a six round battle, while San Jose junior middleweight Lee Reyes (1-1) takes on an opponent to be named in a four round fight. Also featured will be San Jose heavyweight prospect Gerald Washington making his professional debut in a four round fight against Glendale, Arizona’s Blue DeLong (0-3).
