09.10.07 – By Matthew Hurley: The undercard for the Miguel Cotto – Sugar Shane Mosley bout at Madison Square Garden on November 10th has been announced and, surprisingly, it features a stellar group of boxing fighters. Antonio Margarito, Joel Casamayor and prospect Victor Ortiz will all fight on the card and all three bouts will be shown on the HBO pay per view telecast.
The main event features another matchup co-promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Arum and De La Hoya finally settled on the undercard this past weekend.
“Instead of doing what so many promoters, including ourselves, have done in the past and put on a junk undercard, we decided we would pack this card so we could show how great the sport is, and how many great fighters there are in the sport,” Arum said.
De La Hoya himself received a lot of criticism from many fans and media scribes, this one included, for not giving proper exposure to the up-and-coming fighters in the Golden Boy stable beneath his mega fight with Floyd Mayweather. It was a perfect opportunity to present these up-and-comers to a large audience and help to establish a fan base. Instead Oscar and company overpriced the pay per view buy and provided only two fights before the main event. Perhaps he and Arum realize that they have to get these younger boxers out there because the marquee names are all fading off into retirement. The sport needs new blood to survive.
Margarito, who lost his WBO welterweight title belt to Paul Williams on a close decision in July, will fight NABF champion Golden Johnson. Johnson is coming off a victory over Oscar Diaz last November. There is a feeling that should Margarito beat Johnson and Cotto beat Mosley the two will fight next year.
Casamayor won the WBC lightweight title in October of 2007 by defeating the late Diego Corrales on a split decision. He will take on Jose Armando Santa Cruz.
Ortiz, who last fought Emmanuel Clottey will fight former champion Carlos Maussa who lost his title by knockout in the 9th round to Ricky Hatton in November of 2005.
Arum went on to add that the main event between Cotto and Mosley will be a great event and that Madison Square Garden will provide an electric atmosphere to the proceedings. “We are looking forward to this fight which we truly believe will be one of the greatest boxing events of the year.”