The undercard for the huge fight between middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez on Nov. 21 (HBO pay-per-view) at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas has not yet been finalized, but it's getting there.
Roc Nation Sports, Cotto's promoter, continues to work on hammering out a deal that would see super middleweight champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) appear in the co-feature in a light heavyweight fight. If the deal is finalized, it will mark the start of a three-fight contract between Ward and HBO.
Two other world title bouts are agreed to for the undercard. According to Golden Boy, Alvarez's promoter and co-promoter of the card, contracts have been sent out and Golden Boy is waiting for them to be signed and returned before the fights can be officially announced. But here are the two planned bouts:
• Junior lightweight titlist Takashi Miura (29-2-2, 22 KOs), of Japan, will make a mandatory defense against Francisco Vargas (22-0-1, 16 KOs), a 2008 Mexican Olympian. Miura will be making his fifth defense. He has defeated quality opponents such as Billy Dib (by knockout in May) and Sergio Thompson (by decision in a 2013 defense). Vargas is coming off an impressive eight-round knockout of Australia's Will Tomlinson. In 2014, Vargas scored his biggest win, a third-round destruction of former featherweight and junior featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez.
• Bantamweight titlist Randy Caballero (22-0, 13 KOs), of Coachella, California, will return from foot surgery to make a mandatory defense against England's Lee Haskins, who claimed the interim belt while Caballero was sidelined with the injury. Caballero won the vacant belt by unanimous decision against England's Stuart Hall last October in Monte Carlo. He was due to make his first defense against on Aug. 8 but had to withdraw because of the foot problem. With Caballero out, Haskins (32-3, 14 KOs) won the interim belt by sixth-round knockout of Ryosuke Iwasa on June 13.