Today at 4:00 pm EDT, the fighters for tomorrow night's Showtime broadcast hit the scales to weigh in in California, with Keith Thurman topping the bill against Julio Diaz in a 12-round welterweight fight.
Thurman (22-0, 20 KO) is the big favorite against veteran Diaz (40-9-1, 29 KO), but Julio nearly upset the apple cart against Shawn Porter in December 2012, then Amir Khan in April of last year. He may be 0-2-1 in his last three, but he was highly competitive in those two fights, and even his rematch loss to Porter, while clear, was hardly a shameful effort. He did a lot better than Paulie Malignaggi just did with Porter, and really no worse than Devon Alexander.
On the undercard, Lucas Matthysse (34-3, 32 KO) returns from his loss to Danny Garcia to face John Molina (27-3, 22 KO) in a 12-round junior welterweight bout. In the opening Showtime fight, Omar Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KO) defends the WBC lightweight title against Jerry Belmontes (19-3, 5 KO).
On the Showtime Extreme portion of the broadcast, prospects Antonio Orozco, Jermall Charlo, Joseph Diaz Jr, Frankie Gomez, and Terrell Gausha are in action, along with Sharif Bogere and Yamaguchi Falcao, the 2012 bronze medalist at light heavyweight from Brazil, who made his pro debut with an exceedingly rare double-DQ in January.