Pedro Campa and Aaron Herrera to clash on HBO Latino

Nov

Two fringe welterweight contenders will collide on Dec. 12.

Pedro Campa and Aaron Herrera, both from Mexico, will square off at the Civic Auditorium in Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles.

The 10-round bout will top a live HBO Latino telecast, preceded by the IBF light heavyweight title eliminator between unbeaten Sullivan Barrera and Karo Murat. Opening the telecast, which begins at 10 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. PT, will be an eight-round middleweight bout between Arif Magomedov and Jonatan Tavira.

Campa (18-0, 14 knockouts) is coming off a six-round unanimous decision over Noe Nunez on May 23. The decision win snapped a streak of six consecutive knockouts for the Hermosillo, Sonora resident.

Herrera (29-3-1, 18 KOs), who hails from Vallalodid, Yucatan, is unbeaten in his last five bouts since suffering back-to-back losses to Jason Pagara and Selcuk Aydin in 2013.

In his last bout on March 28, Herrera stopped Raul Hinojosa in the first round in Merida, near his hometown.

“Anytime Mexican welterweights with these type of styles face-off in the LA area, fireworks are bound to happen,” said Carl Moretti, vice president of operations for Top Rank Promotions.

Barrera vs. Murat should be an entertaining bout as well. Both will be fighting for the mandatory slot to face IBF/WBA/WBO titlist Sergey Kovalev.

Barrera (16-0, 11 KOs), who was born in Cuba and is trained by Abel Sanchez, is already ranked No. 7 by the IBF, No. 6 by the WBA, No. 9 by the WBC and No. 15 by the WBO. In his last bout on July 25, Barrera stopped Hakim Zoulikha in the eighth round.

Murat (27-2-1, 17 KOs) has won his last two bouts by knockout since losing a one-sided, 12-round decision to Bernard Hopkins in Oct. of 2013. He is ranked No. 13 by the IBF.

Magomedov (16-0, 9 KOs) won a one-sided, 10-round decision over Derrick Webster in his last bout on July 17. Tavira (12-3, 9 KOs) has lost his last two bouts.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since Oct. of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing.