Steve Kim of MaxBoxing says on his Twitter page that Showtime is working on putting together a bantamweight double-header featuring a rematch between Joseph Agbeko and Abner Mares in the main event. Unfortunately the working date is December 3, which means that Showtime would be counter-programming the Cotto vs Margarito pay-per-view from HBO Sports.
The co-feature for Agbeko vs Mares II would be a second title fight, between WBA "super" titlist Anselmo Moreno (31-1-1, 18 KO) and Vic Darchinyan (37-3-1, 27 KO). Moreno recently signed with Golden Boy Promotions, and this would be his first fight under their banner. The 35-year-old Darchinyan fought last on September 3, beating Evans Mbamba in his native Armenia.
The show would take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, a full trek across the country from Madison Square Garden in New York City, where Cotto vs Margarito II will be held.
While there are open dates for Showtime in December, they are few. December 17 seems to be open, but they might have some other, non-boxing programming scheduled for that date, too, similar to last December when HBO passed on the first Jean Pascal vs Bernard Hopkins fight because they had a concert lined up for the date. Without that, Showtime is possibly working on December 10 with a Brandon Rios fight, and that leaves nothing but December 3 in the month, since after that you're dealing with Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
Why not wait until January? I know the IBF set December 14 as a cutoff date, but are they really not going to budge on that? The promoters came to an agreement already, everyone is happy to do the rematch, it's going to happen. The IBF can be convinced to give them another month, I'm sure. And I don't think anyone would much mind waiting a little longer for a fight we all want to see.
If it does go ahead against Cotto vs Margarito, I wonder how many buys it could steal from that show? I was already worried about that being the last of the glut of PPV fights this fall/early winter, and how people might be really feeling the strain of the holiday season and the boxing industry gouging them, but this could make it even tougher to sell Cotto vs Margarito.