Tomato Cans: December 17, 2008

One of the best fights being talked about right now is, of course, the lightweight world championship fight in the works pitting Juan Manuel Marquez against challenger Juan Diaz. Latest word is that the fight is close to done, with HBO televising on February 28.

Also, DIaz's manager, Willie Savannah, is saying Marquez has backed off on his earlier opposition to fighting in Houston, which is Diaz's hometown. Savannah indicates that it is for business reasons, since Las Vegas is "a ghost town," and citing the fact that Marquez's September fight with Joel Casamayor didn't do big business at the live gate. I'd also wager that the Casamayor-Marquez buyrate estimate of 100K was rounded up a fair bit -- maybe by 15-20 percent.

Houston really does seem the best home for this fight as far as business goes, and it's not like Marquez has never fought in hostile territory before, or never fought in an arena where the fans just weren't really for him. They could hold this fight in Diaz's parents' backyard and he's going to be the favorite.

I really do love the fight, and outside of Marquez-Pacquiao III or Marquez-Campbell -- neither realistic right now -- it's the best fight for Marquez, and it's definitely the best fight for Diaz.

Robert Guerrero has gotten his split from promoter Dan Goossen after California judges sided with him, and that means Guerrero is likely headed to Golden Boy Promotions to resume a career that has been on the shelf for 10 months. He vacated his featherweight title in June and plans to move up to 130 pounds. Golden Boy had hoped the case would be settled in time to sign Guerrero and put him on the Oscar-Manny undercard, likely in some gross mismatch where he could've creamed some poor sap. I'm happy Guerrero will be back in action soon because he's a good fighter and a good guy. With 130 being a bit of a Death Valley right now, he could easily jump into the upper echelon of the division.

If you were expecting newly-crowned cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek to go right into a rematch with Steve Cunningham, I hope you didn't count your chickens. Adamek appears headed for a March 21 bout with IBF mandatory B.J. Flores. If you've never seen Flores fight, you frankly haven't missed a whole lot. His last bout came in February, when he outpointed popular Darnell "Ding-a-Ling Man" Wilson on ESPN2. I thought he clearly won that fight, but he absolutely did so in an unappealing fashion that won't make him popular with the action fans. I think Flores is closer to a "Contender" fighter than he is an actual contender against the division's best, and I'd expect Adamek to have little trouble with him. He was able to avoid Wilson's power because Wilson cannot box. Adamek can box, and he has power. I don't suddenly think Adamek is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but he's underrated, has been for years, and I damn sure think he's better than Flores.

As for the fight taking place ahead of Adamek-Cunningham II, it happens. He's getting rid of a mandatory, and I can't fault him.

Don King talked about that dude what threw a shoe at President Bush. Same ol' Don. He also lost a suit.

50 Cent finally spoke out on that reported fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr.:

"Yeah, we got into a little scrap, a little boxing match," said 50. "Well, it wasn't really much of a boxing match because he hit me in the back of my ear. He's so fast, he's just so fast. The thing about it is, everyone who is around him works for him. And for a second, he tried to talk to me like I was one of the people working for him. He tried to tell me what to do so I grabbed him. I snatched his little ass up then he hit me and was like 'What's wrong with you?' We were mad for a second, but then everything went back to normal."

They should totally fight on PPV.