HBO Pushing For Dulorme vs Abregu on October 27

HBO owes Gary Shaw money and a date after abandoning plans for a prospect-themed boxing show earlier this year, and in exactly the same manner that Lou DiBella has that Friday Night Fights on Steroids show on September 29, Shaw has his date lined up for October 27.

These aren't really bad cards, necessarily, just unusual for the HBO platform, at least when you don't include Adrien Broner events in the discussion. Actually, it would be a welcome addition to HBO Sports, if you ask me, to have a mid-week show like this once a month, but there's only so much blah blah money yada yada dates blah blah boxing only happens on Friday and Saturday now yada yada fan base.

Anyway, Shaw is looking to put exciting Puerto Rican welterweight prospect Thomas Dulorme in the main event, but Team Dulorme and HBO are having philosophical differences, let's say, on what type of fight this should be -- and perhaps they may disagree on what Dulorme is ready for at this time.

Dulorme (16-0, 12 KO) has taken a pretty notable step back in competition in his last two fights, beating Yoryi Estrella and Alberto Herrera after wins over credible (for this stage of his career) opponents like Aris Ambriz, Charlie Navarro, and especially DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley.

HBO is pushing for Argentina's Luis Abregu to be Dulorme's foe on October 27, but the Dulorme team wants Nick Casal. Now, there is a legitimate difference in the level of these two guys -- Abregu is a fringe contender at 147 whose only career loss came to Timothy Bradley, and Casal is a club fighter. He's a likable scrapper and he'd come to fight, but he's a level below Abregu.

And it's not like Dulorme's trainer Jose Bonilla is really hiding their reasoning here, either:

"We were better off before, because Casal is a fighter who would go up from 140 to 147, but HBO is pushing it with Abregu, although that would require greater financial compensation. Abregu is much stronger. He one of those fighters who comes forward and he can withstand a lot [of punches]. He is a high quality opponent."

I can't help but think that if Dulorme is going to balk at Abregu, they might as well just let him fight Casal. It's not like Edwin Rodriguez, who is further along in his prospect career than Dulorme, is being matched tough against Jason Escalera on DiBella's show. Would Dulorme-Casal really be much different?

They have to run this show one way or another, anyway. Hopefully they won't try bringing back Jonathan Gonzalez on the card. That's all I really ask.