Mexico’s Juan Francisco Estrada heads Sept. 8 ‘SuperFly 3’ card at Forum

Mexico’s Juan Francisco Estrada returns atop the “SuperFly 3” boxing card coming to the Forum on Sept. 8, promoter Tom Loeffler announced Thursday.

Estrada (36-3, 25 knockouts), a former flyweight champion, is set to meet countryman and two-time super-flyweight title challenger Felipe Orucuta (36-4, 30 KOs) in the non-title super-flyweight bout on HBO.

Orucuta has knocked out five consecutive opponents.

At February’s “SuperFly 2,” Estrada engaged in a rugged, main-event slugfest with current World Boxing Council champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai of Thailand, who eked out a majority-decision victory and has opted to remain fighting in his home country this year.

“It’s a great fight. Estrada was involved in one of the fights of the year, and his performance against Srisaket completely warranted headlining his own ‘SuperFly’,” Loeffler said. “If he wins, the hope is he’ll meet Sor Rungvisai again next year.

“But with Orucuta, this is a Mexican rivalry, and these guys know they have to put it all on the line to get back on HBO. That’s what makes these fights so good.”

Donnie Nietes (41-1-4, 23 KOs) of the Philippines is set to participate in a title bout in the co-main event when he meets countryman Aston Palicte (24-2, 20 KOs) for the World Boxing Organization super-flyweight belt left vacant by Japan’s Naoya Inoue.

Nietes successfully defended his flyweight belt on the “SuperFly 2” card at the Forum in February.

“Tremendous addition. Nietes has a lot of fans from the Philippines, and is the second-most-accomplished boxer from the country behind Manny Pacquiao,” Loeffler said.

Beyond Sor Rungvisai, other “SuperFly” standouts Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, a former four-division champion from Nicaragua, and Mexico’s Carlos Cuadras are absent from this version.

Gonzalez is bound for the undercard of the Sept. 15 pay-per-view middleweight title fight between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez, but is expected to attend “SuperFly 3,” Loeffler said.

Cuadras underwent treatment for alcoholism following his February loss to Puerto Rico’s McWilliams Arroyo and was recently cleared to resume training, Loeffler said.

Opening the HBO-televised card will be a meeting between Arroyo (17-3, 14 KOs) and Kazuto Ioka (22-1, 13 KOs) of Japan.

“The door’s always open to those [missing] fighters. When you have a triple-header like this, with this type of talent, and add in these guys like Ioka, who will bring a lot of Japanese fans, this will generate a lot of attention and publicity,” Loeffler said.

Tickets priced at $25, $50, $75, $100 and $150 go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. PDT at Ticketmaster.com and the Forum box office. Doors will open at 4 p.m. PDT, and HBO action will start at 6:45 p.m.