Before former welterweight world titleholders Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia do battle for a vacant belt on Sept. 8, Yordenis Ugas and Cesar Barrionuevo will fight in a title elimination bout with an eventual shot against the main event winner at stake.
Ugas-Barrionuevo was added Wednesday as the co-feature to the Porter-Garcia card, which will be televised on Showtime (9 p.m. ET) and take place at Barclays Center in New York.
Ugas (22-3, 11 KOs), 32, a Cuban defector fighting out of Las Vegas, has won seven fights in a row since moving up to welterweight in 2016, including notable victories against Jamal James, Thomas Dulorme and Ray Robinson.
“I’m very excited to be part of such a great card,” Ugas said. “This is a huge opportunity to put myself in position to fight the best fighters in the welterweight division, and that’s my goal. I don’t know much about my opponent, but he is a power-punching Argentine, and I have to be 100 percent ready come Sept. 8. This will be my second appearance on ‘Showtime Championship Boxing’ and I look forward to making another huge statement. I’m going to close the show in New York like my friend, Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman.”
Barrionuevo (34-3-2, 24 KOs), 29, of Argentina, has won 10 fights in a row since 2014, but he has not faced nearly the level of opposition as Ugas has. He is a strong puncher with six knockouts in his last seven fights.
The fight will be Barrionuevo’s second fight outside of Argentina and his first in the United States. He fought once in Mexico in 2014.
“I am proud to be fighting in the United States, and fighting on Showtime is a dream come true,” he said. “Argentine boxing has a long history of great champions, from Carlos Monzon to Sergio Martinez and most recently Marcos Maidana. I am looking to become one of those great Argentine fighters of this era and it starts on Sept. 8. I bring the power and the heart of my country with me and expect all the Argentine flags to be out at Barclays Center.”
Barrionuevo was scheduled to face Abel Ramos on Friday night in Las Vegas, but that was before this bigger opportunity came up.
Also announced on Wednesday was the opening bout of the Showtime tripleheader. It will be a 10-round heavyweight fight between rising contender Adam Kownacki (17-0, 14 KOs) and former world titlist Charles Martin (25-1-1, 23 KOs).
Kownacki, 29, a Poland native fighting out of New York, where he is a popular ticket seller for the die-hard Polish fans, has scored back-to-back notable victories, a fourth-round knockout of former title challenger and countryman Artur Szpilka 13 months ago followed by a sixth-round knockout of Iago Kiladze in a barnburner at Barclays Center on Jan. 20.
“It’s exciting to be back in the ring on Showtime to showcase my skills,” Kownacki said. “It will be another step to reach my goal of becoming the first Polish heavyweight champion. I am training hard in preparation to fight Charles Martin. It will be an amazing night in Barclays Center. I’m hoping Barclays Center will be covered in white and red.”
Martin, 32, of Carson, California, claimed a vacant world title at Barclays Center in January 2016 when he was credited with a second-round knockout of Vyacheslav Glazkov, who could not continue after severely injuring his knee. Three months later Martin lost the belt by one-sided second-round knockout to Anthony Joshua in London.
A year layoff followed the loss and Martin has won two fights in a row since against low-level opposition.
“I don’t want to talk about fighting. I just want to get in there and show off my skills,” Martin said. “For this fight, I asked for the toughest opponent that I could get. I’m not worried about who is in front of me. I will be ready on Sept. 8.”
Initially, the Porter-Garcia co-feature was going to be a mandatory fight between super middleweight world titleholder David Benavidez (20-0, 17 KOs), 21, of Phoenix, and former titlist Anthony Dirrell (32-1-1, 24 KOs), 33, of Flint, Michigan. However, Showtime and Benavidez promoter Sampson Lewkowicz told ESPN that the fight would be moved to another card later in the year.