by David P. Greisman

The undercard of tomorrow night’s Premier Boxing Champions broadcast on CBS was supposed to include a featherweight title fight between Jesus Cuellar and Abner Mares.

But when Mares was scratched from the card with an eye problem, that propelled two young junior middleweight prospects into the opening bout underneath the welterweight title fight between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.

Oscar Molina and Jarrett Hurd will look to make the most of it.

“It’s a huge deal for me. I’m excited. I’m ready to put on a show for everybody,” Molina said after weighing in at 154.8 pounds. “Once I found out it was going to be on CBS, man it’s huge. I’m ready to take the opportunity and take advantage of it.”

Molina is 13-0-1 as a pro and is coming off a draw against Dominique Dolton last September. That was his first blemish as a pro in a career that began in 2013, months after Molina competed for Mexico in the 2012 Olympics.

“It prepared me a lot. All that amateur experience I had, I had over 200 amateur fights and I’ve been overseas to fight,” Molina said. I” fought many different styles, and I feel like that’s helped me adapt. That’s going to help me out a lot.”

This isn’t Hurd’s first time being propelled into the spotlight after a featherweight title fight was called off. When Gary Russell Jr. got injured and had to pull out of his bout against Oscar Escandon last November, Hurd fought Frank Galarza in the main event of what became a special Saturday edition of “ShoBox: The New Generation.”

Hurd won by sixth-round stoppage, moving to 17-0 with 11 KOs. He weighed in at 153.8 pounds on Friday in Brooklyn.

““I’m just going to go out there and by me,” Hurd said. “I’m ready to put on a show.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at or internationally at . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com