Lightweight Lightning Strikes Austin

On April 4, in the biggest boxing ticket Austin has even seen, the Frank Erwin Center will host six former and two current lightweight boxing champions in Lightweight Lightning, a four-bout event to be broadcast live, pay-per-view, on HBO.

The evening kicks off with Argentinean Jorge Barrios (47-4-1, 34 KOs) fighting former World Champion Carlos Hernandez (43-7-1, 24 KOs) in a 10-round match-up. Former World Champion Jesús Chávez (44-4, 30 KOs), now an Austin local who uses Hyde Park Gym and Lord's Boxing Gym for workouts, faces Australian Michael Katsidis (24-2, 20KOs). Former two-time World Champion and Olympic gold medalist, Cuban-born Joel Casamayor (36-4-1, 22 KOs) is pitted against former World Champion and California native Julio Díaz (36-4, 26 KOs). For the main event, Edwin Valero (24-0, 24 KOs) from Venezuela returns to the US boxing arena after a five-year absence to face Colombian Antonio Pitalúa (46-3, 40 KOs) in a 12-round championship bout for the vacant WBC Interim World Lightweight crown.

"We have never done something like this before, pitting eight of the world's best lightweights against each other on one card," said Oscar de la Hoya, President of Golden Boy Promotions. "It's exciting, it's innovative and I can't wait for the opening bell to ring. The lightweight division is going to be shaken up on April 4th and every one of these fighters knows his career can only advance if he comes out victorious that night...a loss for any of them would be devastating."

Tickets went on sale last week and are available online at Texas Box Office.