A jam-packed three-bout lineup of exciting undercard attractions featuring a longtime contender, a former unified world champion and a pair of unbeatens will stream live on the SHOWTIME SPORTS YouTube channel and Facebook page this Saturday, November 5 in a Premier Boxing Champions event from The Armory in Minneapolis preceding SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING.
Andre Dirrell will battle Yunieski Gonzalez in a 10-round light heavyweight clash.The action also includes former unified champion Julian “J-Rock” Williams taking on Argentina’s Rolando Mansilla in an eight-round middleweight affair, plus unbeatens Kent Cruz and Enriko Gogokhia will duel in an eight-round super lightweight rematch of their split-draw in February kicking off the streaming presentation.
The streaming fights lead into SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT headlined by WBA Super Middleweight Champion and Minneapolis fan-favorite David Morrell Jr. looking to thrill his hometown crowd against unbeaten mandatory challenger Aidos Yerbossynuly.
A bronze medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games, Dirrell (28-3, 18 KOs) rose to the top of the super middleweight division during an impressive run in his career that included a victory over then-unbeaten Arthur Abraham and decision defeats to Carl Froch and James DeGale. The Flint, Michigan-native has won back-to-back fights via knockout since moving up to light heavyweight, stopping Christopher Brooker most recently in July 2021. He takes on Cuba’s Gonzalez (21-4, 17 KOs), who has challenged top light heavyweights including Gilberto Ramirez, Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Jean Pascal. Now fighting out of Miami, Gonzalez won three-straight bouts before losing to Ramirez in a December 2021 slugfest.
Philadelphia’s Williams (27-3-1, 16 KOs) became a unified world champion at 154-pounds in May 2019 when he upset Jarrett Hurd in one of the year’s best fights, winning a close-quarters brawl by unanimous decision. The 32-year-old dropped the titles in his first defense, losing to Jeison Rosario in January 2020, before coming up on the short end of a narrow decision to Vladimir Hernandez in October 2021. He will take on Mansilla of Parana, Entre Rios, Argentina, Mansilla , who looks to rebound from back-to-back defeats against Cesar Mateo Tapia in May and Derrick Colemon Jr. in September. Mansilla (18-11-1, 8 KOs) has fought professionally since 2013 and was unbeaten in his first 11 fights.
The 29-year-old Cruz (16-0-2, 10 KOs) and 31-year-old Gogokhia (13-0-1, 8 KOs) fought to a split draw in their February clash, with Cruz hitting the canvas twice, as they both look to leave no doubt in the rematch. The St. Louis-native Cruz had bounced back from a 2018 draw to Carlos Mohamed Rodriguez with triumphs over Travis Hartman and Erik Humberto Castillo before the Gogokhia fight. A former kickboxing pro, Gogokhia is a native of Georgia but now resides stateside in Woodland Hills, California and had stopped five consecutive opponents before facing Cruz.
The non-televised undercard will also include unbeaten super featherweight Demler Zamora (9-0, 8 KOs) battling Texas-native Clay Burns (10-13-2, 4 KOs) in a six-round fight and unbeaten Cuban prospect Yoenis Tellez (2-0, 2 KOs) in a six-round super welterweight attraction against California’s Dario Guerrero-Meneses (1-2-1).
Rounding out the lineup is Kazakhstan’s Ablaikhan Zhussupov (2-0, 1 KO) facing Arkansas-native Demarcus Layton (8-3-1, 5 KOs) in a six-round welterweight bout, a four-round super featherweight duel between Jose Perez (10-1-2, 4 KOs) and Angel Luna (15-11-1, 8 KOs) and welterweight prospect Maximus Garland (2-0, 2 KOs) in a four-round contest taking on Alex Cortez.
