BoxingScene.com has been told that lightweight contender Michel “La Zarza Ali” Rivera (23-0) will return to the ring on October 15 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. The fight will be part of the Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius undercard to be distributed on FOX pay-per-view.
The 24-year-old was last in action in March when he outpointed previously undefeated Joseph Adorno (14-1-2) in Minneapolis.
At the time of this writing, an opponent for Rivera has not been defined, but Jezzrel Corrales is one of the main candidates to land the fight. The Panamanian has won three in a row since he dropped back-to-back decisions to Ladarius Miller and Chris Colbert.
He burst onto the scene in 2016 when he stopped Takashi Uchiyama in 2 rounds in Tokyo to capture the WBA super featherweight title. He would follow that up with a parody decision victory over Uchiyama 8 months later in a rematch of him.
Former champions Caleb Plant and Anthony Dirrell will square off in the co-main event.
A fight between Subriel Matthias and Jeremias Ponce for the vacant IBF super lightweight title was also expected to be part of the card. However, those plans were scrapped when Ponce from Argentina was unable to obtain a visa in time. The fight will now be scheduled for another date.
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