Cotto-Margarito, Mares-Agbeko rematches go head-to-head on Dec. 3

A Showtime-televised IBF bantamweight title rematch between titleholder Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko will go head-to-head with an HBO Pay Per View televised return bout between WBA junior middleweight beltholder Miguel Cotto and ex-titleholder Antonio Margarito, on Dec. 3, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer confirmed to RingTV.com on Wednesday.

Promoted by Top Rank Inc., Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs) already had been scheduled for a rematch on that date of his 11th-round knockout of Cotto (36-2, 30 KOs) that dethroned Cotto as WBA welterweight titleholder in July of 2008.

Promoted by Golden Boy, Mares-Agbeko II was mandated by the IBF after last month's unanimous decision by Mares, who landed repeated low blows that went unpenalized by referee Russell Mora, including a shot to Agbeko's cup that was ruled a knockdown by Mora.

"Look, ultimately, it's not ideal to have two big fights on the same night, but both are good fights. The Cotto-Margarito fight is a good fight. It's an interesting rematch with a lot of story lines. The same is true for the Mares-Agbeko fight. It's a very interesting rematch with a lot of different story lines. It's a much-anticipated rematch." said Schaefer.

"You have to work within the available dates, and so we are going to obviously promote the event. I think that it's going to do extremely well from a live gate point of view and from a ratings point of view. I want to thank [Showtime's Sports General Manager' Ken Hershman for making it happen."

Also on the Mares-Agbeko undercard is a clash between former beltholder Vic Darchinyan (37-3-1, 27 KOs) and WBA bantamweight titleholder Anselmo Moreno (31-1-1, 11 KOs).

"That's going to be part of the double-header. I think that it's a very exciting night of boxing," said Schaefer. "Two world championship fights in this weight class. We're really excited and delighted that this is going happen this year."

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lem.satterfield@gmail.com