Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Notes: Chavez-Fonfara card takes shape

A few notes from around the boxing world:

• Junior featherweight Oscar Escandon (24-1, 16 KOs), 30, of Colombia, will defend his interim belt against Moises Flores (22-0, 16 KOs), 28, of Mexico, on April 18 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, on the undercard of the light heavyweight bout between former middleweight titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-1-1, 32 KOs) and Andrzej Fonfara (26-3, 15 KOs). The Escandon-Flores bout is ticketed for the Showtime Extreme coverage of the card with Chavez-Fonfara headlining on Showtime. Junior welterweight up-and-comer Amir Imam (16-0, 14 KOs) will likely be on Showtime in the co-feature against an opponent to be determined. Escandon claimed the interim belt via an extremely controversial split decision against Tyson Cave in December in a fight almost everyone thought Cave clearly won.

• Junior lightweight titlist Takashi Uchiyama (22-0-1, 18 KOs), 35, of Japan, will make his 10th defense when he meets Jomthong Chuwatana (9-0, 4 KOs), 25, a muay thai champion from Thailand, on May 6 at the Ota Ward Gymnasium in Tokyo, Watanabe Promotions announced. In another world title bout on the card, junior flyweight titleholder Ryoichi Taguchi (21-2-1, 8 KOs), 28, of Japan, will make his first defense when he faces former strawweight titleholder Kwanthai Sithmorseng (49-3-1, 26 KOs), 30, of Thailand.

• Japan’s Kosei Tanaka (4-0, 2 KOs), 19, will fight Mexico’s Julian Yedras (24-1, 13 KOs) for the strawweight world title vacated by unified titlist Katsunari Takayama, who still has another belt, on Feb. 20. They will meet on May 30 in Komaki, Japan. Tanaka, who turned pro in November 2013, was 46-5 as an amateur and turned pro at 18.

"I wish to win the belt in my fifth bout, unify the belts in my sixth and then move up to win the second world belt in the seventh bout within this year," said Tanaka, who has big-time aspirations.

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