Sergio Thompson to fight Bryan Vasquez on Saturday
Mexican junior lightweight Sergio Thompson will pursue his fourth consecutive win against Costa Rica’s Bryan Vasquez, a winner of four straight fights himself on Saturday at Estadio Nachan Ka’An in Chetumal, Mexico.
Promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Thompson-Vasquez will be televised on Televisa and FOX Deportes.
The hard-hitting Thompson (30-3, 26 knockouts) is coming off a unanimous decision over Adones Aguelo in August, having last suffered defeat by unanimous decision to RING No. 3-rated WBC 130-pound titleholder Takashi Miura in August 2013.
The loss to Miura ended a run of 13 wins that had included 12 stoppages for Thompson, 31, among them two-division titlist Jorge Linares, whom Thompson dropped and stopped in March 2012.
In March, Thompson he rose into the lightweight division for a unanimous decision over Ricardo Alvarez, the older brother of junior middleweight Canelo Alvarez.
Vasquez, 27, is 4-0 with two knockouts since being stopped in the eighth round by RING No. 1-rated WBA junior lightweight titleholder Takashi Uchiyama in the eighth round in December 2012.
Vasquez was last in the ring for a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Jose Felix Jr. in April.
In the co-main event, junior bantamweight Judith Rodriguez will face Salma Canales and in other bouts, welterweight Silverio Ortiz, lightweight Joseph Aguirre and junior welterweight Fidel Maldonado Jr. will also be in action. Ortiz will face Juan Jesus Rivera, Aguirre faces Juan Carlos Dominguez and Maldonado, Fernando Silva.
MIKE ALVARADO-BRANDON RIOS III DOCUMENTARY TO AIR ON JAN. 10 ON HBO
HBO will air a 15-minute documentary on Jan. 10 at midnight ET/PT in advance of the Jan. 24 welterweight rubber match between Mike Alvarado and Brandon Rios, which will take place at 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado, the network announced on Friday.
“Road to Alvarado-Rios 3” details the third fight between Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs) and Rios (32-2-1, 23 KOs), whose first couple of meetings took place at junior welterweight.
A former lightweight titleholder, Rios is 2-2 in his past four fights. The 28-year-old slugger is coming off a ninth-round disqualification victory over Diego Chaves in August to bounce back from a unanimous decision loss to Manny Pacquiao in his welterweight debut in November of last year.
Prior to Pacquiao, Rios had split junior welterweight bouts with Alvarado, stopping him in the seventh round in October 2012 but losing their rematch for the WBO’s vacant 140-pound belt by close unanimous decision in March 2013.
Alvarado, 34, is 3-3 in his past six fights, starting with a bloody 10th-round knockout of Breidis Prescott in November 2011 that was followed by a unanimous decision over Mauricio Herrera in April 2012.