TIJUANA CHAMPION JUAN CARLOS BURGOS RECEIVES BELTS!

   Champion Juan Carlos Burgos was on hand at El Paseo Inn Restaurant at the historic Placita Olvera earlier today to receive his WBO Latino Super featherweight belt and his WBC International silver super featherweight/ WBC Latino super featherweight belt.

  Burgos, who is co-promoted by Thompson Boxing Promotions and Banner Promotions, earned the belts by battling for 10-tough rounds against hard punching Puertorican Luis Cruz on the opening televised bout of the November 12 Pacquiao-Marquez trilogy undercard. 

   Burgos had this to say about the battle, “Some of Cruz’s people thought that I was going to be an opponent that would only last three rounds.  Even if you watch the video, you can hear his trainers telling him that I was not at Cruz’s level.  But I proved everybody wrong.”  

   When asked about his future plans, Burgos stated: “My main focus now is to become world champion. I owe it to my family, my team and my promoters who have always believed in me. I would love to take on Yoriokis Gamboa. I will fight him at any weight… featherweight, super featherweight, lightweight, catch weight. You name the weight and I will fight him. I would also love to be matched up against current WBC featherweight champion Jonnhy Gonzalez.  We were supposed to fight each other in September of 2010 but he went another direction.  I don’t know if he is afraid of me but I really feel he is ducking me.”   

   Other fighters mentioned on Burgos’ wish list were, IBF Featherweight champion Billy Dib, highly ranked featherweight Mickey Garcia, Super featherweights Juan Manuel Lopez and WBC Champion Takahiro Aoh and lastly IBF Super featherweight champion Juan Carlos Salgado.     

   Burgos (28-1, 19 KOs), is scheduled to make his return the ring in the first trimester of 2012.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLEHEADER
Abner Mares vs. Joseph Agbeko II: Saturday, Dec. 3 At Honda Center In Anaheim, Calif.

   In a highly anticipated re-match of one of the year’s most talked about and exciting fights, unbeaten rising star Abner Mares will defend his International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver Bantamweight Championship titles against the boxer he dethroned, former two-time IBF 118-pound champion Joseph King Kong Agbeko, in the main event on Showtime Championship Boxing on Saturday, Dec. 3, live at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

   In the co-featured world championship bout, Anselmo “Chemito” Moreno will defend his World Boxing Association (WBA) Bantamweight Super Championship against Two-Division World Champion Vic “The Raging Bull’’ Darchinyan.

   Mares (22-0-1, 13 KO’s) scored a hotly disputed 12-round majority decision over Agbeko (28-3, 22 KO’s) to win the Showtime Bantamweight Tournament and IBF title last Aug. 13 in Las Vegas.

   The summer slugfest featured many two-way exchanges with numerous swings in momentum. Mares and Agbeko combined to throw 1,394 punches in the fight. The fast-starting Mares connected on 318 of 732, while Agbeko landed on 231 of 662 and notably came on strong in the later rounds. Each fighter landed his share of big blows.

   Their brave performances, however, were overshadowed by referee Russell Mora, who warned Mares several times for low blows throughout the fight yet never deducted a point. In the 11th round, the referee called a knockdown when Agbeko took a knee following a punch that appeared below the beltline.

   When the final bell rang and the scores were totaled, Mares scored a majority decision victory by the scores of 115-111 twice and 113-113, however the controversy surrounding the fight was such that an immediate rematch was ordered by the IBF.

   On Dec. 3, these two great champions will settle the score…

   Moreno (31-1-1, 11 KO’s), 26, of Panama City, Panama, will fight for the first time since he signed with Golden Boy Promotions last August. He will be making his United States debutagainst Darchinyan (37-3-1, 27 KO’s), 35, a Sydney, Australia-based Armenian who has fought in Southern California X times in his career.

NEW YEAR’S EVE BOXING BASH
AT HISTORIC ANAHEIM CONVENTION CENTER

   In the main event, International Boxing Federation (IBF) light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (23-0, 19 KOs), of Tallahassee, Fla., will make his fourth title defense against former World Boxing Organization (WBO) 175-pound kingpin Zsolt Erdei (33-0, 18 KOs), of Budapest, Hungary. World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight champion Rico Ramos (20-0, 11 KOs), of Whittier, Calif., will risk his belt for the first time when he faces the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games Gold Medalist and current World Boxing Association (WBA) interim champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (8-0, 6 KOs), of Miami, Fla., by way of Cuba. This will be the first major boxing event at Anaheim Convention Center since Carlos “Sugar” De Leon scored a first-round knockout over Waldemar Paulino in a WBC cruiserweight eliminator on April 25, 1980.  Former world champion Rafael “Bazooka’’ Limon also appeared on the card.