Top Rank Announces Full Card For December 8 ESPN Card; Teofimo Lopez To Open Television Card
Top Rank has rounded out its undercard for the December 8 boxing card taking place at Madison Square Garden.
The boxing company officially announced that top prospect Teofimo Lopez will open the televised portion of the card, taking on 37-fight veteran Mason Menard. The fight will see Lopez fight for the first time since injuring his right hand during his sixth-round TKO victory over William Silva that saw Lopez pick up the vacant WBC Continental Americas lightweight title.
Menard, who has WBO-NABO lightweight title, sports a 2-2 record in his last four fights including a loss to Raymundo Beltran and Devin Haney. The fight between Lopez and Menard will be for the vacant NABF lightweight title.
The televised portion of the card, being broadcast on ESPN will start at 9 p.m. ET immediately following the Heisman Trophy Presentation, also taking place at Madison Square Garden. Starting at 6 p.m. ET, the undercard will be streamed on the ESPN+ service and Top Rank also announced a number of fights. Below are the fights announced for the ESPN+ undercard.
- Guido Vianello vs. Luke Lyons: Heavyweight bout
- Alexander Besputin (c) vs. Juan Carlos Abreu: USBA welterweight title bout
- Josue Vargas vs. John Renteria: Junior welterweight bout
- Michael Perez vs. Abdiel Ramirez: Lightweight bout
As for the top two fights of the card, both of them are world title fights. Isaac Dogboe will defend his WBO super bantamweight title against Emanuel Navarrete in the co-main event while Vasiliy Lomachenko and Jose Pedraza are set to unify the WBA and WBO lightweight titles in the main event.
