Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Notes: Klitschko, Jennings face to face

A few notes from around the boxing world:

• Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 54 KOs) and challenger Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) will meet head to head at the kickoff news conference on Wednesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden in New York. Klitschko, in his first fight in the United States since a 2008 unification victory (also at the Garden), will make his 18th title defense when he meets Jennings on April 25 (HBO) at the Garden.

• Showtime has added a March 13 "ShoBox" card to its otherwise thin schedule. The card, at a site to be determined, will include middleweight Antoine Douglas (16-0-1, 10 KOs) in the main event against an opponent to be named. Also on what could be a quadrupleheader will be a rematch between super middleweights Andrew Hernandez (8-0-1, 1 KO) and Jerry Odom (12-1, 11 KOs). They met on Jan. 9 and Odom, who was winning handily, was disqualified in the fourth round for blatantly hitting Hernandez after he had already been knocked down. The only other card on Showtime's schedule at this point is a Feb. 20 "ShoBox" headlined by welterweight Sammy Vasquez versus Emmanuel Lartey in Pittsburgh,

• Junior welterweight Jose Ramirez (13-0, 10 KOs), a 2012 U.S. Olympian, will headline a "Solo Boxeo Tecate" card on UniMas on May 9 from the Selland Arena in Fresno, California, his home region, where he is a popular ticket seller. Ramirez's opponent has not been set. When the 22-year-old Ramirez, from nearby Avenal, fought there in October, he drew a crowd of about 10,000 for his first-round knockout of David Rodela.

• Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya has a plan for newly-signed junior middleweight Patrick Teixeira (24-0, 20 KOs) of Brazil. "We'll test him in a 10-rounder on a [Fox Sports 1] card and then we're ready to put him up against anybody at 154 pounds," De La Hoya said. "We're looking to have him fight in March. He will start training here in the states. He's going to be dangerous for anyone at 154."

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