Top Mexican welterweights Pedro Campa and Aaron Herrera will collide on a Tripleheader of action on Saturday, December 12 at the Glendale Civic Auditorium and televised live on HBO Latino Boxing. Top Rank, in association with Main Events and Zanfer Promotions made the announcement today.
“Anytime Mexican welterweights with these type of styles faceoff in the LA area, fireworks are bound to happen,” said Carl Moretti, VP, Top Rank.
Campa (18-0, 14 KOs) of Hermosillo, Mexico will battle Hererra (21-3-1, 12 KOs) of Yucatan, Mexico in a 10 round bout. Campa has knockout wins in seven of his last eight bouts. Herrera has been unbeaten for two years.
With the injury to Artur Beterbiev, Sullivan Barrera (16-0, 11 KOs) has regained his shot to fight for the mandatory position in the IBF and now the 33-year old from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will face Karo Murat (27-2-1, 17 KOs). The winner will earn the right to challenge WBO, WBA, and IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) for his world titles in 2016.
Barrera has quietly risen through the ranks of the light heavyweight division since his defection from Cuba and his professional debut in 2009. He has an impressive 68% (11 of 16) knockout-to-win ratio and has stopped his last five opponents in eight rounds or less.
“I’m looking forward towards December 12, another step in my career to show I have what it takes to compete with the elite in my division,” said Barrera. He added, “I would like to thank the IBF for this opportunity and my whole team.”
He will have no easy bout with Murat. The 32-year old has nearly twice as many professional fights as Barrera. In 2013, he challenged Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins for the IBF Light Heavyweight World Championship and lost via unanimous decision to the legendary Hopkins. Since challenging Hopkins, Murat has stopped his last two opponents including Benjamin Simon earlier this year to take the vacant IBF International Light Heavyweight Title.
“I haven’t heard of Barrera before that he is such a world class fighter. I do have a Cuban friend who knows him from a time when Barrera was an amateur. I do have great respect that he wants to fight against me. I am hugely looking forward to fight in Glendale, California as there live 1.5 million Armenians, who of course will support me.”
Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events added, “Barrera has slowly climbed his way through the light heavyweight division and we are pleased that he is finally able to fight for the mandatory position in the IBF. His stablemate, Arif Magomedov defeated Derrick Webster in his last televised bout and we are so excited that he will also make his HBO Latino debut on Dec. 12.”
The opening bout of the HBO Latino telecast will feature southpaw Jonatan “Oso” Tavira (12-3, 9 KOs) of Distrito Federal, Mexico against undefeated phenom Arif “The Mayhem” Magomedov (16-0, 9 KOs) of Chekhov, Russia in an eight-round welterweight battle presented by Main Events in association with All Star Boxing.
Tavira suffered two straight losses so he looks to make a statement against the 23-year old Mayhem. According to Tavira, ” I took some time off to rethink my career, have been training for four months and decided to come back as a middleweight where I’m more comfortable and feel stronger, I would like to thank All Star Boxing, Inc. and Main Events for giving the opportunity to make my US debut.”
In his last fight, Magomedov handed veteran Derrick “Take it to the Bank” Webster his first career loss in a ten-round unanimous decision to secure the vacant WBO NABO Middleweight Title. Now in his HBO debut Magomedov looks to establish himself as a force to be reckoned with in the middleweight division. He said, “I am very excited and happy to be back in the ring. After my last fight I went back home to Russia and had a great little vacation. I returned to camp the beginning of September to start training, so I had a couple months of good preparation for this fight. I am looking forward to be back in the ring on December 12. This is also my first appearance on HBO network and it makes me more motivated.”
