Pier-Olivier Côté vs. Jorge Luis Teron on Bute-Johnson undercard on November 5th; Esquivias-Beltran on Friday

Live on SHOWTIME® at 9 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast)

NEW YORK (Oct. 31, 2011) – Rising Canadian junior welterweight star Pier-Olivier Côté will take on Jorge Luis Teron in a 12-round co-featured bout on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING on Saturday, Nov. 5, from the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City, Canada, live on SHOWTIME® (9 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).

In the SHOWTIME main event, undefeated International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Lucian Bute will make the ninth defense of his title against ageless former world light heavyweight champion Glen “The Road Warrior’’ Johnson.

The 27-year-old Côté (17-0, 11 KOs), of Quebec City, Canada, is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Pedro Navarrete this past July in Romania and has won four out of his last five contests via knockout. In May, Côté fought on the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley undercard and scored a fourth round technical knockout over Aris Ambriz. Born in Colombia and adopted by a Quebec couple at the age of two, Côté didn’t start boxing until he was 20 years old. As an amateur, he had 65 wins and was a Golden Gloves and Canadian amateur champion. The hard-hitting prospect will face his toughest test to date in Teron, a former blue-chip prospect coming out of New York City.

“I’m extremely happy to fight on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. It’s a real honor for me to be in action in front of my hometown fans for my first international belt. To win the title on SHOWTIME would be amazing,” said Côté, who will battle Teron for the vacant IBF Inter-Continental light welterweight title. “I want to thank my promoter InterBox and also SHOWTIME for giving me this opportunity. Although I don’t feel any added pressure, I really want to turn in a dominant performance on Nov. 5.”

“This is a major step up for Pier-Olivier on Nov. 5,” said InterBox president Jean Bedard. “Not only is he facing the most dangerous opponent of his young career, but he will be doing so in front of a sold-out arena on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. It doesn’t get any better than this. He now has a much broader platform and it is up to him to deliver the performance of his life. I would like to thank our partners at SHOWTIME for giving us this incredible opportunity. This would not be possible without their precious collaboration.”

Teron (25-2-1, 17 KOs), of the Bronx, New York, is coming off a second-round victory over Jose Luis Soto Karass in March. The 26-year-old owns a victory over former world title challenger Michael Lozada and was a three-time Golden Gloves champion. The only blemishes on his record are a knockout loss to current World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight champ Brandon Rios in 2010 and a majority decision loss to then-38-year-old veteran Aldo Valtierra in 2008. Teron avenged the loss with a unanimous decision victory over Valtierra just five months later.

The event is promoted by Interbox, DiBella Entertainment and Warriors Boxing.

Steve Albert will call the action with Al Bernstein and Antonio Tarver providing color commentary and Jim Gray serving as ringside reporter. David Dinkins Jr. is the executive producer of SHOWTIME Sports with Ray Smaltz producing and Bob Dunphy directing.

For information on SHOWTIME Sports Programming, including exclusive behind-the-scenes video and photo galleries, complete telecast information and more, please go to the new SHOWTIME Sports website at http://sports.SHO.com.

GET TO KNOW SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT EFRAIN ESQUVIAS

Orange, CA (October 31, 2011) – Thompson Boxing Promotions returns for the final “New Blood” edition of 2011 this Friday, November 4th at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, California. Super Bantamweight Efrain Esquivias (14-0, 9 KOs) returns to the ring to face what promises to be his toughest fight to date.

Esquivias, who hails out of Carson, California, looks to impress fight fans as he returns with an added zest to take on the veteran Fernando Beltran, Jr. (35-6-1, 19 KOs) of Culiacan, Mexico. The always-tough Beltran has taken the majority of his fights the distance against class ‘A’ opposition as well as contending for the IBF title in the featherweight division.

The Esquivias-Beltran fight is scheduled for 10-rounds and it will be for the vacant NABF Super Bantamweight title.

Get to know Efrain Esquivias before he enters the ring in just under four days by reading the Q&A session below.

Q: How is training going for your fight this Friday?

A: Excellent, I have been training really hard. I’m ready for the
fight.

Q: What have you been doing in particular to train for your
upcoming match?

A: I have been sparring with Abner Mares. Hitting the mitts,
speed bag and heavy bag. I have also been putting in my
roadwork. I know that I am going to have to adjust to
Beltran’s style but that won’t be a problem since I am used
to adjusting to all my opponents. In the fights that I went up
against southpaws (Gabriel Tolmajyan, Shawn Nichols and
Frank Gutierrez) I had to adjust to their styles but I did it
easily because I am good at switching it up on a dime
so my opponents get confused. Since Beltran is a
southpaw, I will look to handle him in the same manner.

There are a lot of southpaws that go right handed and, just
like them, I feel comfortable when I switch to southpaw
stance.

Q: What do you know about your opponent?

A: I am not really familiar with Beltran but I don’t mind that
since I trust my boxing ability and know that I am skilled.

Q: How does it feel to fight for a title that might propel you to
bigger things in the future?

A: I’m excited to have another chance to fight for the
NABF title. My promoter has done a great job in giving me
the opportunity to do it over since I didn’t make the weight
limit in August against Ruiz and lost my shot to fight for the
belt. That is in the past, but I know that I never want to have
that feeling to beat a guy like Ruiz, have my hand
raised and not get to hold the belt. I might have a bright future
in boxing and I want to capitalize in every opportunity.

Tickets for “New Blood” are priced at $75, $45, and $30. They are available now and may be purchased by calling 714-935-0900.

Also featured on the card as the co-main is Ontario’s Jonathan “Lil Thund’r” Arellano (10-0-1, 2 KOs) who will face a foe that has yet to be determined.

Preceding match ups include Miguel Diaz (6-0, 3 KOs) who returns from Allentown, PA to face off show in six round super flyweight clash agianst Felipe Castañeda (6-2-1, 3 KOs) of El Paso, TX and female junior flyweight Sindy Amador (5-0) who will take on Blanca Raymundo (0-4) in a much anticpated rematch.

Bouts subject to change. Doors open at 6:30 pm, and the first bell rings at 7:45 pm. The Doubletree Hotel is located at 222 North Vineyard Avenue in Ontario. The hotel phone number is 909-937-0900.

TEAM DURAN TO LOOK INTO GONZALES DECISION

PATERSON, NJ (October 31, 2011)—This past Friday night, Middleweight Ossie Duran took on undefeated Brandon Gonzales in the nationally televised main event on Sho Box: The New Generation.

The fight, which took place in Duran’s home state of New Jersey, was a good fight with both combatants fighting hard.

As the fight wore on, it became clear that Duran was imposing his will his effective jab that set up a diverse selection of landed punches.

When the final bell rang, to the dismay of Duran and his team at Gulfstream Promotions, it was announced that Gonzales had taken the fight by split decision.

With that decision Gulfstream has decided to ask the New Jersey Boxing Commission to take a look at the tape to see what they thought of the decision.

“We feel Ossie didn’t get a well deserved decision”, said advisor to Duran Vinny LaManna.

“We just want the Commission to look at all things. Sitting ringside we thought Ossie won six rounds to two no question.”

“Watching the tape of the SHOWTIME broadcast only confirmed what everyone at ringside saw. Ossie won the fight. A reputable guy like SHOWTIME analyst Steve Farhood had Ossie winning the fight so I am not alone in what we saw”

“I want to thank Tom Brown and Goossen Tutor for giving Ossie the opportunity. At the end of the day, Ossie trained so hard and we had been in discussions for some major things with Ossie had he won this bout. Because of what we feel is a bad decision, those are on hold and keeps Ossie from his dream of fighting for a world title.”