Miguel Cartagena vs Jose Rivera tops weekend Philadelphia card

Originally scheduled to meet July 27th in Atlantic City, bantamweights Miguel Cartagena and Jose Rivera will instead mix it up October 12th in Cartagena's hometown, Philadelphia. Rivera pulled out of the initial bout once it was cut from six rounds to four. Catagena's management team Battlestrong Boxing (comprised of Moz Gonzalez & Eddie Woods) was not pleased. In a press release co-manager Moz Gonzalez had the following to say:

"Miguel trained very hard and both guys were in the ring. Now there is no questions that this is the main event and it's a six round fight. Miguel is going to show Rivera what would have happened on July 27th but now he gets to have a great win as a main event fighter in his hometown."

The rescheduled bout will take place at the National Guard Armory and is promoted by Power Productions.

Cartagena, a former amateur standout, enters with a pro record of 5(3)-0 while Rivera has lost more times than Cartagena has had fights. Rivera, despite losing his last 4 straight to other undefeated prospects, has yet to be stopped. Neither Olympic Alternate Qaíd Muhammad nor knockout artist Jonathan Gonzalez could take Rivera out, so Cartagena at least has some sort of a test in front of him.

Other prospects featured on the card include light welterweights Emmanuel Taylor and Tim Witherspoon Jr, who will be facing George Sosa and Ramon Ellis respectively. Witherspoon Jr is the son of former 2 time world heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon, perhaps most remembered for his dubious split decision loss to the great Larry Holmes in 1983 (I scored the bout 115-114 Witherspoon). Taylor was originally scheduled to fight on last month's Harrah's, Chester card headlined by Naim Nelson vs Victor Vasquez but it didn't pan out. GFL's Marc Abrams caught up with him shortly before then: