Showtime announced a pair of world title eliminators taking place in October.
The network announced a card from the Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania on October 23. The event will be headlined by a WBC junior middleweight title eliminator between former title challengers Erickson Lubin and Terrell Gausha.
Lubin was unsuccessful in his first attempt at winning a world title in October 2017 when he was knocked out in the first round by Jermell Charlo with the WBC junior middleweight title on the line. Since then, Lubin has gone on to three straight bouts, all stoppage wins in four rounds or less. Gausha was also unsuccessful in a title fight on that same October 2017 event when he lost a lopsided 12-round decision against then-WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara. Gausha last fought in MAy when fought Austin Trout to a 10-round draw.
In the co-main event fight, former lightweight titleholder Robert Easter Jr. will move up to junior welterweight and take on Adrian Granados. Easter, who once held the IBF championship, is coming off a draw against Rances Barthelemy for the vacant WBA “Regular” lightweight title back in April. Granados was also not victorious in his last fight, which also took place in April. Granados suffered a seventh-round stoppage against Danny Garcia in the main event of a PBC on FOX card from Carson, California.
The other title eliminator announced is for the WBC bantamweight championship, which will open the televised portion of the card. Former world champions Emmanuel Rodriguez and Rau'shee Warren will fight for the right to be the mandatory challenger to the world title currently being held by Nordine Oubaali.
Both Rodriguez and Warren lost title bouts this year with Rodriguez getting stopped by Naoya Inoue in the World Boxing Super Series semifinals and Warren dropping a decision against Oubaali in January on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Adrien Broner pay-per-view card.
