Junior welterweight Fidel Maldonado Jr. and former interim lightweight titleholder Ismael Barroso will square off in the 10-round main event of the Oct. 13 edition of Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN, Golden Boy Promotions announced Thursday.
The card will take place at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California, and air live on ESPN Deportes beginning at 10 p.m. ET. ESPN3 will stream live beginning with preliminary bout at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Maldonado (24-3-1, 19 KOs), 26, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, scored a career-best win in the series on June 17 when he turned back a stiff challenge from Pablo Cesar Cano to claim a split decision despite getting knocked down.
Now he will take on another dangerous opponent in Barroso (19-1-2, 18 KOs), a big-punching 34-year-old southpaw from Venezuela.
Barroso won an interim lightweight belt by impressive fifth-round knockout on the road in England, where he knocked down Kevin Mitchell three times in the victory. In his next fight, however, Barroso faced then-full titleholder Anthony Crolla in a mandatory fight and got knocked out by a body shot in the seventh round in May 2016. He has not fought since.
In the 10-round junior welterweight co-feature, Cano (30-6-1, 21 KOs), 27, of Mexico, will look to rebound from the loss to Maldonado when he takes on Marcelino “Nino” Lopez (32-2-1, 17 KOs), 31, of Argentina. Lopez is also aiming to come back from a loss. He dropped a split decision to Michael Perez on April 20 on a Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN card.
