By Francisco Salazar
Junior lightweight contender Vicente Escobedo will fight Edner Cherry in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ on Saturday night.
Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Eric Gomez advised krikya360.com on Sunday that the bout will not be televised on HBO.
The “World Championship Boxing” telecast was originally to show Adrien Broner’s lightweight world title belt defense against Welshman Gavin Rees along with the rematch between heavyweights Jonathan Banks and Seth Mitchell.
However, Banks suffered a thumb injury in training a few weeks ago, forcing the postponement of the fight.
HBO could fill that slot with Escobedo-Cherry or the light heavyweight bout between Sakio Bika and Nikola Sjekloca. However, it looks more like the premium network will only televise Broner-Rees in its entirety.
However, one would assume HBO will televise highlights of the Escobedo-Cherry fight.
Escobedo (26-4, 15 KOs) from Woodland, CA, lost by fifth round stoppage to Broner in his last fight on July 21st. Much of the publicity surrounding the bout was of Broner failing to make weight, resulting in Escobedo’s camp threatening to pull out of the fight.
However, the bout proceeded when Escobedo was compensated a portion of Broner’s purse and Broner would not weigh in more than 143 pounds on the day of the fight. It would be Broner’s last fight at 130 pounds.
Cherry (30-6-2, 16 KOs), who is originally from Nassau in the Bahamas, is unbeaten in his last seven bouts, which includes a no contest. Cherry won a 10 round majority decision over Juan Carlos Martinez on April 14th.