Cote To Fight Teron On Saturday

NEW YORK (Oct. 31, 2011) – Rising Canadian junior welterweight star Pier-Olivier Côté will take on Jorge Luis Teron in a 12-round co-featured bout on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING on Saturday, Nov. 5, from the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City, Canada, live on SHOWTIME^® (9 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).

In the SHOWTIME main event, undefeated International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Lucian Bute will make the ninth defense of his title against ageless former world light heavyweight champion Glen “The Road Warrior’’ Johnson.

The 27-year-old Côté (17-0, 11 KOs), of Quebec City, Canada, is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Pedro Navarrete this past July in Romania and has won four out of his last five contests via knockout.  In May, Côté fought on the Manny Pacquiao–Shane Mosley undercard and scored a fourth round technical knockout over Aris Ambriz. Born in Colombia and adopted by a Quebec couple at the age of two, Côté didn’t start boxing until he was 20 years old. As an amateur, he had 65 wins and was a Golden Gloves and Canadian amateur champion. The hard-hitting prospect will face his toughest test to date in Teron, a former blue-chip prospect coming out of New York City.

“I'm extremely happy to fight on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. It's a real honor for me to be in action in front of my hometown fans for my first international belt. To win the title on SHOWTIME would be amazing,” said Côté, who will battle Teron for the vacant IBF Inter-Continental light welterweight title. “I want to thank my promoter InterBox and also SHOWTIME for giving me this opportunity. Although I don't feel any added pressure, I really want to turn in a dominant performance on Nov. 5.”

“This is a major step up for Pier-Olivier on Nov. 5,” said InterBox president Jean Bedard. “Not only is he facing the most dangerous opponent of his young career, but he will be doing so in front of a sold-out arena on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. It doesn't get any better than this. He now has a much broader platform and it is up to him to deliver the performance of his life. I would like to thank our partners at SHOWTIME for giving us this incredible opportunity. This would not be possible without their precious collaboration.”

Teron (25-2-1, 17 KOs), of the Bronx, New York, is coming off a second-round victory over Jose Luis Soto Karass in March.  The 26-year-old owns a victory over former world title challenger Michael Lozada and was a three-time Golden Gloves champion.  The only blemishes on his record are a knockout loss to current World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight champ Brandon Rios in 2010 and a majority decision loss to then-38-year-old veteran Aldo Valtierra in 2008. Teron avenged the loss with a unanimous decision victory over Valtierra just five months later.

The event is promoted by Interbox, DiBella Entertainment and Warriors Boxing.

Steve Albert will call the action with Al Bernstein and Antonio Tarver providing color commentary and Jim Gray serving as ringside reporter. David Dinkins Jr. is the executive producer of SHOWTIME Sports with Ray Smaltz producing and Bob Dunphy directing.