Mike Alvarado, a former two-time Colorado wrestling champion at Thornton’s Skyview High School and junior welterweight contender is penciled in to open the April 14 HBO card from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The fight will open the telecast of an HBO telecast, which will precede the main event bout between hard-hitting unbeaten lightweight fighters Brandon Rios and Yuriorkis Gamboa.
HBO hoped Alvarado (32-0, 23 KOs), who suffered brutal cuts in a comeback 10th-round TKO of Breidis Prescott in November on the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez III undercard, would face Ruslan Provodnikov of Russia, who has been a regular in action-packed fights on ESPN2. However, Top Rank wanted another opponent, so HBO has accepted Mauricio Herrera (18-1, 7 KOs), who handed Provodnikov his first loss in a close decision in January 2011 on ESPN2.