Trout-Cotto undercard announced

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Puerto Rican junior lightweight prospect Jayson Velez and Brooklyn, N.Y., middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs will fight in co-featured televised bouts on the undercard of Austin Trout-Miguel Cotto at New York's Madison Square Garden on Dec. 1, Showtime, Miguel Cotto Promotions and Golden Boy announced on Friday.

Velez, who is one of Cotto's fighters, will face Mexico's Salvador Sanchez II in a scheduled 10-round fight. Jacobs, the 2009 ESPN.com prospect of the year, will face club fighter Chris Fitzpatrick in a scheduled 10-rounder that will open the tripleheader.

Velez (19-0, 14 KOs), 24, was originally slated to challenge featherweight titlist Billy Dib of Australia, but the Dib camp said Showtime dropped the fight under pressure from Golden Boy and Floyd Mayweather manager Al Haymon, who did not want one of rapper 50 Cent's fighters -- Dib -- to be on the broadcast following his well-publicized falling out with Mayweather.

Showtime said the issues between 50 Cent and Mayweather had nothing to do with the Dib-Velez fight being rejected, only that the network did not want to put on Dib because he is generally not in fan-friendly bouts.

Sanchez (30-4-3, 18 KOs) is the nephew of Mexican legend, Hall of Famer and former featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez. In going for his 12th win in a row, Sanchez, 27, will pay homage to his uncle by wearing the trunks, shoes and robe from his final fight in July 1982 against fellow Hall of Famer Azumah Nelson at Madison Square Garden.

The 25-year-old Jacobs (23-1, 20 KOs) will be fighting for the second time after being sidelined for 19 months and nearly dying from a cancerous tumor that attacked his spine.

Jacobs won his return on Oct. 20, knocking out Josh Luteran in just 73 seconds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on the Danny Garcia-Erik Morales II undercard.

Fitzpatrick (15-2, 6 KOs), of Cleveland, is a stretch for a premium cable slot. The 25-year-old has never fought anybody notable and has lost two of his past three fights, including a fifth-round knockout loss to Patrick Majewski in his previous fight in July.

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Dan Rafael

Boxing

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• ESPN.com boxing writer since 2005
• Writes pound-for-pound rankings
• Five years at USA Today