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With Thomas Dulorme officially out of commission due to COVID, The Ring reports that welterweight veteran Chris Van Heerden will take his place against Jaron Ennis on Showtime’s December 19th Nonito Donaire-Emmanuel Rodriguez broadcast
South Africa’s Van Heerden (28-2-1, 12 KO) is, as mentioned in the previous article, a quality short-notice replacement. His two pro losses came in 2010 (a split decision against Nikola Stevanovic) and 2015 (a TKO against Errol Spence Jr.), and he’s presently in the midst of a 14-1 run. He hasn’t scored what I’d call a signature win during that span, but he’s beaten all the people he should have beaten, and he figures to give the ultra-talented “Boots” (26-0, 24 KO) a reasonable challenge.
The card, which unfortunately appears to run head-to-head against Canelo Alvarez vs. Callum Smith, was originally set to feature Donaire against Nordine Oubaali on December 12th. Whoever wins the new main event will receive the WBC bantamweight title and be obligated to defend against Oubaali upon the latter’s return.