Showtime has unveiled the two-fight countdown show that leads into their November 25th David Benavidez vs Demetrius Andrade pay-per-view.
The featured attraction sees former champion Sergey Lipinets (17-2-1, 13 KO) welcome Michel Rivera (24-1, 14 KO) to the super lightweight division. Lipinets, who briefly held the IBF title at 140 before losing it to Mikey Garcia in his first defense, went 3-1-1 at 147. A knockout loss to Jaron Ennis sent him back down in weight, where he smashed Omar Figuera Jr two Augusts ago. He hasn’t fought since, as a potential title shot against Subriel Matias didn’t get off the ground.
Once a top prospect at 135, Rivera has a lot of rebuilding to do after an awful performance against Frank Martin and subsequent failed drug test for diuretics. He’s clearly extremely talented, but if the gears aren’t meshing, Lipinets is absolutely dangerous enough to put the hurt on him.
14 pounds north, Vito Mielnicki Jr (15-1, 10 KO) looks to make it eight straight against what looks like a soft touch in Alexis Salazar (25-5, 10 KO). Salazar got pretty thoroughly cooked by Carlos Adames and Xander Zayas, though Mielnicki’s one loss did admittedly come to another Zayas victim.
The non-televised prelims notably feature a WBC super featherweight eliminator pitting Pablo Vicente (23-1, 17 KO) against Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov (20-1, 11 KO) and the latest from top prospect Curmel Moton (1-0, 1 KO).