The welterweight division’s two most exciting fighters, three-time welterweight champion ANTONIO MARGARITO and three-division world champion SUGAR SHANE MOSLEY, plan to open 2009 with an explosive world championship fight. Margarito’s World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title defense against Mosley, one of the era’s top pound-for-pound fighters, will take place on Saturday, January 24 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will be televised live on HBO’s World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. PT.

Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs), from Tijuana, Mexico, returns to the ring on the heels of his career-defining victory over Miguel Cotto on July 26, 2008. Considered a major underdog when it was announced that he’d be challenging the undefeated WBA welterweight champion Cotto, Margarito withstood a firestorm of punches from the Puerto Rican superstar while retaliating with his own barrage of nuclear-like arms, stopping Cotto in the 11th round. The victory not only produced his third world championship belt in the welterweight division, but it also solidified his position as one of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters. Margarito’s first world title reign began in 2002, when he stopped Antonio Diaz in the 10th round to capture the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight championship belt. He successfully defended it seven times during his five-year term, including victories over current world champion Joshua Clottey, former world champion Andrew Lewis and top contenders Kermit Cintron and Danny Perez. He captured the International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight title on April 12, 2008, by knocking out defending champion Kermit Cintron in the sixth round. Margarito vacated that title in order to challenge Cotto and now looks to further solidify his spot in boxing history with a win over Mosley on January 24.

Sugar Shane Mosley (45-5, 38 KOs) of Pomona, Calif. is arguably the most accomplished fighter of his era and certainly a shoo-in first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee. He returns to the ring fresh from his 12th-round knockout victory of former world junior middleweight champion Ricardo Mayorga on September 27, 2008. Mosley, who has won six of his last seven bouts since 2005, boasts victories over world champions Mayorga, Fernando Vargas (twice) and Luis Collazo during that streak. Mosley first came to prominence when he defeated defending IBF lightweight champion Philip Holiday in 1997 to claim his first world title. He successfully defended that title eight times, all by knockout, before vacating the title to move up to welterweight two years later. In 2000, Mosley won an exciting 12-round split decision over WBC welterweight champion Oscar de la Hoya to claim his second world title in as many divisions. Mosley successfully defended his new crown three times before losing it 18 months later to Vernon Forrest in 2002. Just a year later, in 2003, Mosley once again moved up in weight and captured the WBC/WBA super welterweight titles in a rematch with De La Hoya, this time winning a unanimous decision. In addition to becoming a three-division world champion, he also became the only man to claim two professional victories over the legendary “Golden Boy.”