Showtime announced they will have a two-fight countdown show on Saturday, November 25, leading up to the David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade on pay-per-view.
The two-fight telecast will serve as an appetizer while the four-fight pay-per-view will be the main course of the evening.
Headlining the prelim show will be former world champion, Sergey Lipinets, facing Michel Rivera in a ten-round super lightweight bout. While Vito Mielnicki Jr. will take on Mexico's Alexis Salazar in a ten-round super welterweight attraction with the action taking place on Showtime Sports' YouTube page. The action begins at 6 PM EST / 3 PM PST.
The excitement doesn't stop there, as a four-fight pay-per-view telecast begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, headlined by the undefeated two-time super middleweight world champion David “El Monstruo” Benavídez defending his Interim WBC Super Middleweight Title against the unbeaten two-division world champion Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade in a highly anticipated showdown in the star-studded 168-pound division.
Lipinets with a record of 17-2-1, 13 KOs, and 34-years-old, will look to put himself back in the world title picture. Lipinets, a distinguished kickboxer who began boxing professionally in 2014, earned a world title in November 2017 when picked up a unanimous decision over Akihiro Kondo. Lipinets would lose that belt in his subsequent fight to Mikey Garcia. Lipinets has spent his professional boxing career based out of Southern California, and mostly recently stepped in on late notice to defeat Omar Figueroa Jr., who was originally set to face Adrien Broner, who pulled out of the fight the week of citing mental health issues.
Rivera, 25-years-old, has been contending toward the top of the division until a devasting loss last December to Frank Martin seemed to relegate him backward in the lightweight division. Things didn't get easier for Rivera, who had to serve a suspension for testing positive for hydrochlorothiazide and triamterene, both of which are on the banned substance list under World Anti-Doping Agency, better known as WADA. Rivera will be fighting for the first time at junior welterweight, and coming off an eleventh month lay-off after the first loss of his career.
21-year-old Vito Mielnicki Jr. holding a record of 15-1, 10 KOs known for his improved power, squares off against 28-year-old Mexican fighter Alexis Salazar with a record of 25-5, 10 KOs. Mielnicki lost early in his development as a young professional to Philly's James Martin, but has looked much improved in recent fights whereas, Salazar lost to Xander Zayas via an unanimous decision last December and was stopped by Carlos Adames in 2021. Salazar will look to show the level Mielnicki is currently on as he has only lost to the best fighters of the division.
The non-televised undercard will see Panama’s Pablo Vicente facing Tajikistan’s Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov in a 10-round WBC Super Featherweight Title Eliminator, in which the winner will be O'Shaquie Foster's mandatory challenger. Mayweather Promotions’ rising prospect Curmel Moton will face another unbeaten fighter as he faces Hunter Turbyfill, David Benavidez's stablemate, and Milwaukee-native Daniel Blancas will fight Raiko Santana in an eight-round super middleweight bout, lightweight Jabin Chollet will fight in an eight round fight, a six-round super lightweight showdown bout will see Israel Mercado taking on Wesley Rivers and welterweight Alex Holley faces Las Vegas’ Allen Medina in a four round fight.
