The September 8 Showtime boxing card is starting to shape up with a welterweight title eliminator and a heavyweight fight.
It was announced that Yordenis Ugas will fight Cesar Barrionuevo in a WBC welterweight eliminator while undefeated prospect Adam Kownacki will face off against former world champion Charles Martin.
The Ugas vs. Barrionuevo fight is a fight between two top ten boxers in the WBC rankings at 147 pounds. After losing two straight fights in 2014, Ugas was inactive for two-years, but has since then won his last six fights, including a win over Thomas Dulorme on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor undercard.
After Barrionuevo started his career only winning three of his first eight fights (with one of them being a no contest), the Argentine boxer has won 31 of his last 32 fights. This will be Barrionuevo’s third fight outside of Argentina and first inside the United States.
Kownacki is an undefeated heavyweight from Poland who has spent the entirety of his pro career fighting in the United States. Kownacki has already fought once in 2018, knocking out Iago Kiladze back in January.
Martin, the once-beaten former IBF heavyweight champion, has not fought in more than a year, but is currently on a two-fight win streak. Martin lost his IBF heavyweight title to Anthony Joshua in 2016, but has since then recovered with stoppage wins over Byron Polley and Michael Marrone.
The Showtime card will be headlined by Danny Garcia vs. Shawn Porter for the vacant WBC welterweight title. Although the Ugas vs. Barrionuevo fight is a title eliminator, it’s still not clear whether or not the fight is a final eliminator or if the winner will have to fight one more fight to become the mandatory challenger.
