Teron, Cote speak Ahead of Saturday Clash

QUEBEC CITY, CANADA (Nov. 3, 2011) – Day two of press conferences at La Cage Aux Sports here attracted another strong media turnout as rising Canadian junior welterweight star Pier-Olivier Côté and the more-experienced Jorge Luis Teron discussed their 12-round co-featured bout on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING this Saturday, Nov. 5, from the Pepsi Coliseum 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, is coming off a unanimous decision over Pedro Navarrete this past July in Romania and has won four out of his last five contests by knockout. In May, Côté fought on the Manny Pacquiao–Shane Mosley undercard and scored a fourth-round TKO 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 champion. The hard-hitting prospect will face his toughest test to date in Teron, a former blue-chip prospect from New York City.

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

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

What the participants had to say on Thursday:

PIER-OLIVIER Côté:

“This is the most significant fight of my career and I'm ready for everything Teron brings.

“I know this is a major step up for me but I will not disappoint my fans. Thank you to InterBox and (promoter) Jean Bedard for making this fight possible for me. And a big thank you to SHOWTIME for broadcasting this fight. I will not let the network down.”

JORGE LUIS TERON:

“It's going to be a great fight. I've been training for the past six months because of my fight that fell out with (Joel) Casamayor so I'm ready.

“It's going to be an action-packed fight. I think one difference between Côté’s past opponents and me is that I'm coming in to win. You’ll see on Saturday night.”