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It’s rare when every bout on a
major a pay-per-view broadcast brings interest and
excitement on its own, but the undercard of the
highly-anticipated undisputed middleweight
championship clash between Bernard Hopkins and
Jermain Taylor does just that. The July 16th
telecast will feature two world championship matches
and the return of a former undisputed welterweight
champion.
NeXt in Line – Hopkins vs Taylor, will be televised
by HBO Pay-Per-View live from the MGM Grand in Las
Vegas, Nevada, beginning at 9pm ET / 6pm PT.
A night to remember just got
more memorable.
* In a 12 round WBC super bantamweight championship
bout, Oscar ‘Chololo’ Larios and Wayne ‘The Pocket
Rocket’ McCullough will revisit their epic war from
February of this year, a bout that is already an
early Fight of the Year candidate for its non-stop
action and gritty performances by both warriors.
* Newly crowned WBO junior bantamweight champion
Fernando ‘Cochulito’ Montiel will put his title on
the line against former flyweight world champion
Eric ‘Little Hands of Steel’ Morel in a 12 rounder
that will recall the classic Mexico vs Puerto Rico
battles of the past.
* Former welterweight champion
Vernon Forrest will return to the ring for the first
time since being sidelined by a shoulder injury when
he battles an opponent to be announced shortly in a
10 round junior middleweight bout.
All bouts are presented by Golden Boy Promotions.
Hopkins-Taylor is presented in association with
DiBella Entertainment.
Considered to be the premier 122-pound fighter in
the world, WBC Superbantemweight Champion, Oscar
Larios (55-3-1, 35 KOs) proudly bears the
responsibility of being one of this generation’s top
Mexican warriors. With eight title defenses already
under his belt, ‘Chololo’ has his sights set on
unifying the title and cleaning out the super
bantamweight division, but he will have a tough foe
to vanquish in McCullough, who gave Larios one of
the toughest fights of his career on February 10.
In that 12 round war, Larios and McCullough stood
toe-to-toe for most of the bout as each tried to
break the other’s resolve. It didn’t happen. And
though Larios scored the decision victory, boxing
fans have clamored for a rematch, eager to see these
two 122-pounders do it again.
A native of Belfast, Ireland who now makes his home
in Ireland, Wayne McCullough (27-5, 18 KOs) is a
former WBC bantamweight champion who has faced down
some of the hardest punchers in boxing (Erik
Morales, Naseem Hamed, Scott Harrison) without
batting an eye. An all-action fighter who has never
been in a bad fight, McCullough is determined to set
up a rubber match with Larios by beating him on July
16.
One of boxing’s most accomplished champions despite
being only 26-years-old, Fernando Montiel (30-1-1,
24 KOs) added a third world title to his trophy case
on April 9 when he easily dismantled previously
unbeaten Ivan Hernandez in seven rounds. In doing
so, the talented Los Mochis native became a WBO
115-pound champion for the second time (Montiel had
also won the WBO flyweight title), and he plans on a
long reign at the top.
San Juan’s Eric Morel (35-2, 18 KOs) had a very
impressive run himself at the top of the flyweight
division, reigning for over four years from 2000 to
2004. Now he has his sights set on a world
championship at 115 pounds, and his ‘Little Hands of
Steel’ are firmly pointed in the direction of
Fernando Montiel.
Opening up the pay-per-view portion of the show on
July 16 will be former welterweight champion Vernon
Forrest (35-2, 26 KOs), who will make his triumphant
return to the ring for the first time in over two
years. The pride of Georgia, who is known for his
classy demeanor in and out of the ring, has been
sidelined by injuries, but reports from his training
camp are pointing to him returning to the form that
had him on top of the pound for pound lists after
his back-to-back victories over Shane Mosley in
2002.
Tickets for NeXt in Line, priced
at $75, $150, $250, $450, and $650, are available at
the MGM Grand Garden Arena box office outlet.
Tickets also are sold at all Las Vegas TicketMaster
locations (Tower Records/WOW!, Smith's Food and Drug
Centers, Robinsons-May stores and Ritmo Latino).
Ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. To
charge by phone with a major credit card, call
TicketMaster at (702) 474-4000. Tickets also will be
available for purchase at
www.mgmgrand.com
or
www.ticketmaster.com.
For room packages and
availability as well as event ticket information,
call MGM Grand at (800) 929-1111 or (702) 891-7777
or log onto the World Wide Web at
www.mgmgrand.com.
The Hopkins vs. Taylor pay-per-view telecast,
beginning at 9pm ET/6pm PT on July 16, will be
distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be
available to over 50 million pay-per-view homes. HBO
Pay-Per-View is the leading supplier of event
programming to the pay-per-view industry. For more
event information log onto
www.HBOPPV.com
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