The pay-per-view undercard for the Oct. 15 Believe It Or Not! event headlined by the Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson world title fight at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles is complete with the addition of Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi facing Mexican contender and former Olympian Orlando Lora in a 10-round showdown. The welterweight bout will open the HBO Pay-Per-View® telecast, making Oct. 15 one of the most competitive fight nights of the year from top to bottom.
“I’m excited to be fighting in Los Angeles for the first time in my career,” said Malignaggi. “I have been training for the past year in Los Angeles so I’m really looking forward to performing in front of my new friends out west as well as my support system I have coming from the East Coast. New York meets Los Angeles, I can’t wait to shine!”
“I’m ready for anything Malignaggi will bring to Los Angeles for this fight: his speed, his experience and his talk,” said Lora. “I expect to walk through his punches, punish him and finish him.”
“Malignaggi vs. Lora is a great way for us to begin the ‘Believe It or Not!: Hopkins vs. Dawson’ event,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “This fight is an intriguing clash of styles and with the welterweight division more competitive than it’s been in years, there could be big things in store for the winner.”
“This fight could be the fight of the night,” said Gary Shaw, President and CEO of Gary Shaw Productions. “Orlando Lora is a true Mexican warrior. I can’t wait to see what he does on October 15. I have a feeling it will be the start of a very good night for Gary Shaw Productions.”
“Believe It Or Not!: Hopkins vs. Dawson” is a 12-round bout for Hopkins’ WBC and Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight World Championship Titles taking place on Saturday, Oct. 15 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, Calif. and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Gary Shaw Productions and sponsored by Cerveza Tecate, AT&T and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. In addition to this championship main event showdown, the televised pay-per-view undercard will also feature Antonio DeMarco vs. Jorge Linares in a 12-round fight for the vacant WBC Lightweight World Title, Kendall Holt vs. Danny Garcia in 12-round bout for the vacant NABO Junior Welterweight Title and Paulie Malignaggi vs. Orlando Lora in a 10-round welterweight bout. DeMarco vs. Linares is presented in association with Teiken Promotions.
Tickets for Hopkins vs. Dawson, priced at $300, $150, $75 and $25, are available for purchase online at www.staplescenter.com and www.ticketmaster.com, via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone lines at (800) 745-3000 and at the STAPLES Center Box Office.
A polarizing figure who probably has just as many fans cheering for him to win as there are people hoping to see him get beat on fight night, Brooklyn’s Paulie Malignaggi (29-4, 6 KO’s) has done one thing that is undeniable and that’s to stake his claim as one of the best boxers in the world today. Malignaggi is a former IBF Junior Welterweight World Champion who has faced the likes of Miguel Cotto, Amir “King” Khan, Ricky “Hitman” Hatton, Lovemore “Black Panther” N’Dou and Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz. The “Magic Man” is now making his mark at 147 pounds and, with wins over Michael Lozada and Jose Miguel Cotto, he’s closing in on a welterweight title shot, a dream that could come closer to becoming a reality if he defeats Lora on Oct. 15.
2000 Mexican Olympian Orlando Lora (28-1-1, 19 KO’s) knows what’s on the line when he faces former World Champion Paulie Malignaggi at STAPLES Center, and he refuses to let this moment slip away. A professional since 2003, Lora is an unrelenting puncher who keeps the pressure on from the opening bell until the sooner of the closing bell or his opponent getting stopped. With 28 wins in 30 fights, his style almost always results in a win. A former WBC Continental Americas and IBA champion, the 30-year-old from Culiacan wants a world championship and, after scoring two wins in 2011 over Joel Juarez and Daniel Eduardo Yocupicio, he plans on hitting the trifecta by stopping Malignaggi’s winning streak this October.
The Hopkins vs. Dawson pay-per-view telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD. HBO Pay-Per-View®, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. For Hopkins vs. Dawson fight week updates, log on to www.hbo.com.