Showtime unveils spring/summer boxing schedule featuring Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton

Showtime unveiled its spring/summer boxing schedule Friday, a slate that includes the postponed Keith Thurman-Shawn Porter welterweight title fight in a prime-time CBS show, heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder versus Alexander Povetkin and super-middleweight champion Badou Jack facing Canada’s Lucian Bute.

The network also announced it will air a late-summer World Boxing Assn. featherweight title defense by unbeaten champion Leo Santa Cruz of Los Angeles versus unified super-bantamweight champion Carl Frampton of Ireland.

The fighters have verbally agreed to the bout within the last 24 hours, and the bout is expected to land in Southern California or Las Vegas.

While venues remain to be set in other bouts, dates are known for Thurman-Porter (June 25) and Jack-Bute (April 30). Officials are targeting a May date for Wilder-Povetkin, which will be fought in Russia, with May 21 being eyed.

“We’re thrilled and very grateful to all the promoters and fighters to put together this impressive slate,” Showtime Executive Vice President Stephen Espinoza said. “It’s going to be perhaps the most exciting run the network has ever done.”

Espinoza announced the cards, which will begin April 9 with the network’s broadcast of Los Angeles’ Charles Martin making the first defense of his International Boxing Federation heavyweight belt against England’s Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 knockouts).

“The second American heavyweight champion versus a British Olympic gold medalist... Anthony Joshua has established himself as a star in the U.K. already, and Charles Martin didn’t get an opportunity to fully display what he can do when there was an injury in his [January] title fight,” Espinoza said.

That card, which will be fought at London’s O2 Arena, also includes IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby versus Eric Hunter.

Another featherweight title bout comes April 16 on Showtime, when World Boxing Council champion Gary Russell Jr. (26-1, 15 KOs) meets Patrick Hyland (31-1, 15 KOs) at Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut. The co-main event is an IBF super-featherweight title fight between unbeaten Jose Pedraza and top-ranked contender Stephen Smith of England.

Former three-division world champion Abner Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs) of Hawaiian Gardens will get another chance to capture a World Boxing Assn. featherweight belt on the Thurman-Porter WBA welterweight title card on CBS when he meets champion Jesus Cuellar (28-1, 21 KOs).

Mares, who lost to Santa Cruz for the major WBA belt in August, was due to fight Fernando Montiel in a 10-round bout before the Thurman-Porter bout scheduled for Saturday was delayed due to Thurman’s involvement in a car accident last month.

“I give Abner all the credit in the world. He wanted a title fight and he’s taking on a rugged puncher,” Espinoza said.

There was also a change in plans for WBC super-middleweight champion Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs), who was supposed to defend his belt against former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., until Chavez Jr.’s training-camp left-foot injury in Big Bear led officials to select Bute (32-3, 25 KOs).

Bute, 36, a former IBF champion in the division, lost a unanimous decision to England’s IBF champion James DeGale in November. DeGale will defend his belt on the card against mandatory challenger Rogelio Medina.

Espinoza said the winners have agreed to meet each other.

Originally, Jack’s fight was aimed to take place in Southern California or Texas, but his promoter, Floyd Mayweather Jr., has yet to finalize a location. Jack’s team would like to keep the bout in the United States, Espinoza said.

Covina’s John Molina (28-6, 23 KOs) landed a June 11 Showtime bout at Turning Stone Resort in New York against another potential fight-of-the-year maker, junior-welterweight Ruslan Provodnikov (25-4, 18 KOs).

“We’re very excited for the Showtime debut of Provodnikov on Boxing Hall of Fame weekend. ... It’s a crossroads fight. Expect fireworks,” Espinoza said.