Cotto vs Trout undercard: Jayson Velez, Danny Jacobs back in Showtime bouts

The December 1 Showtime card at Madison Square Garden headlined by Miguel Cotto vs Austin Trout finally has set undercard bouts for TV, as prospects Jayson Velez and Danny Jacobs will be showcased.

Velez (19-0, 14 KO) is a 24-year-old featherweight prospect from Puerto Rico, who was originally slated to face Billy Dib on this card. Dib, who holds the IBF featherweight title and has recently been caught up in the Mayweather-50 Cent battle, was turned down by Showtime, though, and has been replaced with Salvador Sanchez II (30-4-3, 18 KO). It's sort of an odd move, but in the end probably more political than anything. To say that the 27-year-old Sanchez's talent doesn't quite live up to his name would be an understatement. He's an also-ran, but he's not boring to watch in my experience. The same often cannot be said of Dib, to be perfectly honest.

Jacobs (23-1, 20 KO) makes a quick turnaround for his second fight back after beating cancer. On October 20 in Brooklyn, he scored a vicious knockout of Josh Luteran in just 1:13, and now will face Chris Fitzpatrick (15-2, 6 KO). In pure boxing terms, it's not much of a matchup. Jacobs should be able to win handily, because he's just better than Fitzpatrick, who lost his last time out against Patrick Majewski, and has lost two of his last three. But Jacobs is very much a work once again in progress, and for where he's at right now, it's not a bad fight at all. Fitzpatrick knows what he's doing in there, he's just very limited in how far he can go.