Former two-division world champion Devon Alexander will square off against battle-tested, experienced competitor Aron Martinez on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
The scheduled 10-round welterweight fight will serve as the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card on ESPN (9 p.m. ET).
Alexander (26-3, 14 KO’s), 28 of St. Louis, will be 10 months removed from his last date in the ring, a one-sided defeat to WBC Silver welterweight champion Amir Khan last December.
However, he has beaten some of the best boxing has to offer, world-class opponents like 140 lb. contender Lucas Matthysse and two-time runner-up to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Marcos Maidana.
Martinez (19-4-1, 4 KO’s), 33, of Los Angeles, is entering the ring with something to prove after losing a close decision to Robert Guerrero in June.
Despite having a relatively low knockout rating (17 percent), he managed to drop Guerrero, who had only been dropped twice in his career, in the fourth round with a series of hard shots when he had Guerrero trapped on the ropes.
Originally from Mexico, Martinez is expected to be the fan favorite come Oct. 14.
In the co-main event, undefeated featherweight titlist Lee Selby will be making his much-anticipated U.S. debut against an experienced veteran in Mexico’s Fernando Montiel.
Selby (21-1, 8 KO’s) 28, of Wales, claimed the IBF World featherweight title on May 30 with a surprisingly dominating performance over Russia’s Evgeny Gradovich, who was beaten from pillar to post.
The fight was stopped prematurely in the eighth round as a result of an accidental clash of heads which left the ex-champion Gradovich unable to continue.
Montiel (54-4-2, 39 KO’s) has won eight fights consecutively, but this will mark his first world championship appearance since February 2011 when he fought the ‘The Filipino Flash’ Nonito Donaire for the WBC and WBO bantamweight belts.
Donaire stopped Montiel inside the second round.
