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Adrien Broner and Omar Figueroa Jr. have a date, a site and a network for their previously announced welterweight fight.
BoxingScene.com has learned that Showtime will broadcast Broner-Figueroa as the main event of a tripleheader August 20 from Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Broner and Figueroa announced on their social media platforms last month that they agreed to box, but they initially indicated that they would square off July 23 somewhere in Chicago.
Showtime will televise two 12-round title bouts before Broner and Figueroa fight next month.
Roger Gutierrez will defend his WBA world 130-pound championship against Hector Luis Garcia in one of those bouts. Albert Puello and Batyr Akhmedov will square off for the vacant WBA 140-pound title last owned by Josh Taylor in the other championship match Showtime will air August 20.
Venezuela’s Gutierrez (26-3-1, 20 KOs) and the Dominican Republic’s Garcia (15-0, 10 KOs) were rumored to have agreed to fight this Sunday night in Caracas, Venezuela, as part of the WBA’s KO Drugs Festival. Garcia’s handlers contend that they never agreed to challenge Gutierrez in his home country.
Garcia upset previously unbeaten Brooklyn native Chris Colbert (16-1, 6 KOs) in their 12-rounder February 26 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas to earn a shot at Gutierrez’s crown.
A then-unknown Garcia replaced Gutierrez as Colbert’s opponent on approximately three weeks’ notice after Gutierrez tested positive for COVID-19. Colbert entered the ring for their 12-round elimination match as a 22-1 favorite.
The WBA ordered the Dominican Republic’s Puello (20-0, 10 KOs) and Uzbekistan’s Akhmedov (9-1, 8 KOs) to fight for its unclaimed super lightweight title last month. Akhmedov has suffered only a debatable defeat to former WBA secondary champion Mario Barrios (26-2, 17 KOs), who was undefeated when he dropped Akhmedov twice and overcame Akhmedov’s late rally to win a unanimous decision in September 2019 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The WBA stripped its 140-pound crown from Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) in mid-May when he declined to make a mandated defense against Puello. The Scottish southpaw became boxing’s second undisputed 140-pound champion of the four-belt era in May 2021, but he was disinterested in making numerous mandatory defenses after defeating England’s Jack Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs), the mandatory challenger for his WBO belt, by split decision in a very competitive 12-round fight February 26 at The OVO Hydro in Glasgow.
As for Broner and Figueroa, they’ll square off in a bout between 32-year-old former champions who are at similar stages of their careers. Both boxers also will end long layoffs August 20.
Cincinnati’s Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs, 1 NC) hasn’t boxed since his 12-round, unanimous-decision win against Puerto Rico’s Jovanie Santiago in February 2021 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. His victory over Santiago (14-2-1, 10 KOs) marked the end of a two-year hiatus for the polarizing Broner, who has fought just five times in the past six years.
Figueroa most recently lost by technical knockout to Abel Ramos, who stopped Figueroa following six one-sided rounds in May 2021 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The Weslaco, Texas native has lost back-to-back bouts to Ramos (27-5-2, 21 KOs) and former WBA welterweight champ Yordenis Ugas (27-5, 12 KOs), who defeated Figueroa by unanimous decision in their 12-round bout in July 2019 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.