Sergey Kovalev vs. Vyacheslav Shabranskyy undercard

Boxingnews24.com

By Jim Dower: The November 25th undercard fights for the Sergey Kovalev vs. Vyacheslav Shabranskyy fight on HBO is still being worked on at this time. Light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera (20-1, 14 KOs) has been added to the card. Barrera, 35, will be fighting an opponent still to be determined in a 12-round match in the co-feature.

Kovalev-Shabranskyy card will be televised on HBO Boxing at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The Cuban Barrera has turned things around lately with his career since his loss to Andre Ward on March 26 last year. Barrera has won his last 3 fights beating Shabranskyy, Paul Parker and Joe Smith Jr. Barrera is looking very good and he’s now ranked #2 WBA, #3 WBC, #5 WBO, and #13 IBF.

If Barrera can get 1 or 2 more good wins under his belt, it could put him at the No.1 spot with the WBA or WBC, and that would get him his long-awaited world title shot. Barrera is getting up there in age at 35, and he can’t afford to wait too much longer before he eventually gets a world title shot against one of the champions.

Former 2 division world champion Orlando Salido is off the card, according to Dan Rafael. Salido was supposed to be fighting Jonathan Oquendo, but that fight has been taken off the card for an unknown reason.

Former super featherweight champion Jason Sosa (20-2-4, 15 KOs) will be fighting the hard-hitting Robinson Castellanos (24-13, 14 KOs) in a 12 round fight. The winner of the Sosa- Castellanos fight will have an excellent chance to fight WBA World super featherweight champion Jezreel Corrales, according to Rafael. Castellanos, 35, lost his last fight to Jezreel Corrales by a 10 round technical decision on July 15.

The fight was stopped due to two cuts that Castellanos suffered. Corrales was lowering his head frequently when coming forward, making it unavoidable for Castellanos to keep from getting head-butted. Castellanos wants a rematch with Corrales, who he knocked down twice in the 4th. With the way the two guys fight, it’s quite possible the rematch will play out just like the first fight.

Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) is trying to rebuild his career as well after losing his last 2 fights to Andre Ward. Kovalev was stopped in the 8th round by Ward on June 17 on HBO PPV. Kovalev was doing reasonably well until the 8th round, which is when he was hurt by a right hand. Kovalev staggered to the ropes where Ward then nailed him with 3 body shots that led the referee Tony Weeks to stop the contest. You can argue that maybe 1 or 2 of the final 3 punches that Ward threw were low blows. But with the referee Tony Weeks saying they were legal blows, it meant there wouldn’t be any replay.