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Steve KimESPN
Showtime announced on Saturday the full pay-per-view fight card for their Sept. 26 show at Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Uncasville, Connecticut, and it includes five title fights.
The show will be divided in two segments separated by a 30-minute intermission and headlined by two fights involving the Charlo brothers.
First, Jermall Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) defends his WBC middleweight title against Sergiy Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs) in the main event. Charlo became the WBC’s 160-pound titleholder when Canelo Alvarez was elevated to “franchise champion” by the organization.
Derevyanchenko is a solid contender having lost a close fight to Daniel Jacobs in 2018 challenging for the IBF title, and then last October lost a disputed decision to Gennadiy Golovkin in a memorable back-and-forth affair at Madison Square Garden in New York.
On the first segment’s undercard, WBA “regular” junior featherweight titlist Brandon Figueroa (20-0-1, 15 KOs) faces Damien Vazquez (15-1-1, 7 KOs), and WBO bantamweight titlist John Riel Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs) defends his belt against an opponent to be determined.
Casimero had been slated to face WBA “super” bantamweight titleholder Naoya Inoue in a unification contest, but that fight — which was originally scheduled for April 25 — was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The fight was never rescheduled and Inoue and Top Rank decided to move in another direction.
The second part of the show features the return of former junior featherweight unified titlist Daniel Roman (26-3-1, 10 KOs), who takes on Juan Carlos Payano (21-3, 9 KOs). Roman most recently lost a razor-thin split decision to Murodjon Akhmadaliev in January.
Then, Luis Nery (30-0, 24 KOs) faces Aaron Alameda (25-0, 13 KOs) for the WBC junior featherweight title. The WBC announced recently that Rey Vargas, who holds this title, has suffered a broken leg and is now their “champion in recess.”
In this second segment’s main event, WBC junior middleweight titlist Jermell Charlo (33-1, 17 KOs) faces IBF/WBA titleholder Jeison Rosario (20-1-1, 14 KOs) in a unification fight. Charlo gained revenge on Tony Harrison, stopping him in Round 11 of their rematch, to regain the belt in December. Rosario traveled to Julian Williams’ hometown of Philadelphia and scored a fifth-round TKO upset to capture the two belts.