After taking the WBO Junior Welterweight belt from Terry "Turbo" Flanagan in his hometown of England, Dallas, Texas' Maurice "Mighty Mo"Hooker (24-0-3, 16 KO's) goes to the hometown of the tough Alex Saucedo (28-0, 18 KO's) in Oklahoma City to defend his title on November 16, 2018
They each fought exactly six months ago, Hooker getting his world title in England, and Saucedo putting on a great show in his last fight when he beat Leonardo Zappavigna (37-4, 24 KO's), which is in the running for fight of the year.
This fight against Hooker and Saucedo almost seemed inevitable because they knew each other in the amateurs and have sparred against each other when Saucedo trained in the past at the Maple Avenue Boxing Gym, Hooker's hometown gym in Dallas, Texas.
They eventually went separate ways and now they meet again, this time in a world title fight, but not in Hooker's town, it is in the backyard of the Oklahoman Saucedo. But things are much different this time, Hooker is the world champion and Saucedo is the top contender for his title.
They will fight at the Chesapeake Arena, the home stadium of the Oklahoma Thunder, and the same venue where Saucedo stopped Leonardo Zappavigna by TKO in a brutal bloodbath battle in the seventh round. That win set up Saucedo for this world title shot and Top Rank's winning bid made it possible for him to fight in his hometown of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Saucedo is promoted by Top Rank Boxing, which won the bid for this fight and Hooker is signed with Roc Nation and recently joined with Eddie Hearn and DAZN.
Hooker does not mix words with fighters and gets right to the point, when he was quoted as saying "I'm very excited to defend my title and show the world what I bring to the ring, I feel this is my time, I'm hungry, I've been working hard and I'm ready to make Alex Saucedo my next victim."
Hooker is training in San Diego with long time trainer Vincent Parra and has been putting in good sparring with the likes of Abel Ramos and Brian Figueroa.
Saucedo is training at Big Bear with Abel Sanchez, the trainer for Gennady "GGG" Golovkin and he recently said he has been asking for a fight against Hooker for about three years and now it is finally going to happen.
The Oklahoman Saucedo is eager to step into the ring with the champion and he knows what he is up against and he hopes to put on a good show on November 16 in front of his hometown fans.
As for the champion Maurice "Mighty Mo" Hooker, he feels they are not on the same level because his style of fighting is not one-dimensional, he can box and he has power in both hands, as opposed to Saucedo which he feels has only one style and no defense.
That said, Hooker knows it's going to be a touch match, but he feels the pressure will be on Saucedo who is fighting for his first world title fight in front of his hometown and that he, Mighty Mo, is the world champion.
He also went on to say “I’m gonna show out and take over Oklahoma for the night.”
In addition to this highly anticipated world championship fight, the undercard includes the following bouts:
Egidijus Kavaliauskas vs. Roberto Arriaza, 12 rounds, WBO weltereweight eliminator
Cletus Seldin vs. Nelson Lara , 10 rounds, junior welterweights
Albert Bell vs. Carlos Padilla, 8 rounds, lightweights
Trevor McCumby vs. Felipe Romero, 8 rounds, light heavyweights
Tyler Howard vs. Isiah Seldon, 8 rounds, middleweights
Trey Lippe Morrison vs. TBA, 6 rounds, heavyweights
Aaron Morales vs. Francisco Lapizco, 6 rounds, bantamweights
Rasheen Brown vs. Sebastian Baltazar, 4 rounds, junior featherweights
John Rincon vs. Chamarion Bennett, 4 rounds, lightweights