Junior middleweights Carlos “Caballo Bronco” Adames (18-0, 14 KOs) and Patrick Teixeira (30-1, 22 KOs) in a 12-round WBO junior middleweight title eliminator on November 30 at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Adames-Teixeira will headline the ESPN+ undercard stream before the super featherweight doubleheader featuring former featherweight world Oscar Valdez’s division debut against Andres Gutierrez and Carl Frampton’s showdown against the unbeaten Tyler McCreary.
With current champion Jaime Munguia moving to middleweight, the Adames-Teixeira winner could end up being declared the WBO champion, or fight another contender for the vacant belt if Munguia relinquishes the belt.
In other undercard action:
In an all-SoCal battle, Glendale native Adam “Blunose” Lopez (13-1, 6 KOs) will make the first defense of his Junior NABF featherweight belt in a 10-rounder versus Moreno Valley’s Luis Coria (12-2, 7 KOs). Lopez is coming off a come-from-behind KO win May 25 against Puerto Rican prospect Jean Carlos Rivera.
Arnold Barboza Jr. (22-0, 9 KOs), the pride of South El Monte, Calif., will defend his Junior NABF super lightweight belt versus longtime contender William Silva (27-2, 15 KOs). Silva has two in a row since a July 2018 knockout loss to top lightweight contender Teofimo Lopez, while Barboza is looking to score his third knockout win of the year. Barboza stopped former world champion Mike Alvarado April 12 on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Anthony Crolla undercard.
Japanese super lightweight contender Andy Hiraoka (14-0, 9 KOs), stablemate of pound-for-pound sensation Naoya Inoue, will make his American debut in an eight-rounder against Rogelio Casarez (13-8, 5 KOs).
Welterweight prospect Brian “La Bala” Mendoza (18-0, 13 KOs) hopes to extend his knockout streak to five against the hard-hitting Larry Gomez (9-1, 8 KOs) in an eight-rounder.
Italian heavyweight KO artist Guido “The Gladiator” Vianello (5-0, 5 KOs) will fight Colby Madison (8-1-2, 5 KOs) in a six-rounder.
Jared Anderson (1-0, 1 KO), fresh off a first-round knockout in his pro debut Oct. 26 in Reno, Nev., will return in short order in a four-rounder against Stephen Kirnon (2-2-1, 1 KO). Anderson was Team USA’s top-ranked amateur when he signed with Top Rank in September.
Xander Zayas (1-0, 1 KO), the 17-year-old welterweight prodigy who scored a first-round KO in his pro debut Oct. 26, will face Virgel Windfield (2-2-1, 2 KOs) in a four-rounder.
Adames should be the favorite. What is funny, is if Adames wins, they won’t talk of making Adames vs Crawford on ESPN+, even though they are both promoted by Top Rank. If Crawford wants to keep calling out PBC fighters and not getting them, and having ESPN wonder who is PFP #1, Crawford of Lomachenko, and if fans eat that stuff up, I guess Crawford can keep calling out PBC fighters, and not considering winning a WBO title in a 4th division. If Crawford can get Danny Garcia, Spence, Thurman, or the guy Mikey Garcia beat for the IBF 140 lbs title, I guess Crawford doesn’t have to wonder about the WBO belt up at 154 in 2020. All Crawford has to do is keep defending the WBO belt against whoever the WBO says is top 10 in the WBO at 147, and most will still rate him top 3 pfp in boxing. Canelo is probably top 3 pfp now after moving up to 174 and getting the job done.