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Sports May 12, 2022
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Former World Boxing Organization light flyweight champion Angel Acosta will fight fellow Puerto Rican Janel Rivera Thursday evening in the scheduled 10-round super flyweight main event of a six-bout card at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio.
Acosta (22-3-1, 21 knockouts) will be fighting for the first time since being stopped in the fourth round by undefeated WBO flyweight champion Junto Nakatani Sept. 10. It was Acosta’s second loss in his past four fights.
Rivera (18-8-3, 11 KOs) has lost five consecutive fights. He was stopped in the third round by Saleto Henderson Feb. 13 in his most recent fight.
Rivera weighed in Wednesday at 114 pounds, one pound under the super flyweight limit. The 31-year-old Acosta weighed in at 112.8.
Acosta won the vacant WBO 108-pound title Dec. 2, 2017, by knocking out Juan Alejo Zuniga in the 10th round at Madison Square Garden on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto-Sadam Ali WBO junior middleweight title fight.
Acosta made three successful defenses of the title, all by knockout, then lost the title June 21, 2019, when he was knocked out in the 12th round by Elwin Soto at Fantasy Springs Casino. This will be Acosta’s fourth bout since losing the title.
The card also includes a scheduled eight-round super welterweight fight between Donte Stubbs (6-4, 2 KOs) of Riverside and Eric Tudor (2-0, 2 KOs) of Hollywood, Florida.
Marlen Esparza, the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council female flyweight champion, will sign autographs and pose for pictures with all ticket holders in the casino’s Special Events Center before the DAZN livestream begins.
Doors will open at 5 p.m. with the first fight beginning at 6 p.m. The event will also be shown on Golden Boy Boxing YouTube page.
