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Showtime Boxing will bid farewell to its loyal fans with a thrilling tripleheader on December 16 from The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The co-main event of the night will feature WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez defending his belt against unbeaten challenger Angelino Cordova in a twelve-round bout.
The other two fights on the card are the rematch between Chris Colbert and Jose Valenzuela in the super featherweight division, and the WBA ‘Regular’ super middleweight title clash between David Morrell and Sena Agbeko. The lineup was announced during the David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade Showtime PPV event on Saturday from Las Vegas.
Martinez, who hails from Mexico City, is one of the most exciting fighters in the lower weight classes. He has made six successful defenses of his title since knocking out Cristofer Rosales in December 2019. His last fight was in May, when he stopped Ronal Batista in the eleventh round on the undercard of his stablemate Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s homecoming in Zapopan, Mexico.
Martinez was supposed to face McWilliams Arroyo in a unification bout, but the Puerto Rican Olympian lost his interim status for failing to comply with the WBC rules. Martinez was then allowed to take a voluntary defense, which he chose to do against Cordova, who is ranked number four by the WBC. Martinez hopes to secure another unification fight in 2024 if he wins this bout.
Cordova, who is from Venezuela, is a rising contender who has upset two former title challengers in his last two fights. He beat Axel Aragon Vega by a close decision in June in Florida, and then stunned Angel ‘Tito’ Acosta by a unanimous decision in April in California. Both fights were at junior flyweight, but Cordova is moving back up to flyweight to challenge Martinez for his first world title.
The Martinez-Cordova fight will be part of a historic night for the flyweight division, as three of the four major titles will be on the line on the same date. The other fight will be the highly anticipated unification bout between IBF/WBO champion Sunny Edwards and Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, which will headline a DAZN show from Glendale, Arizona.