Celestino Caballero to confront Juan Manuel Lopez, Chris John returning early next year

by Scott Christ on Sep 22, 2009 7:20 PM EDT in Boxing News Analysis

If and when Juan Manuel Lopez is successful on October 10 against Rogers Mtagwa, he'll have to field a challenge from Celestino Caballero. The two could fight for the junior featherweight world championship on January 23. (Photo via www.braggingrightscorner.com)

BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno spoke with agent Sampson Lewkowicz, who gave him some interesting tidbits regarding two fighters he represents, junior featherweight titleholder Celestino Caballero and featherweight titlist Chris John.

Lewkowicz told Reeno that Caballero plans to attend Top Rank's October 10 pay-per-view, main evented by Juan Manuel Lopez taking on Rogers Mtagwa in an obvious tune-up. On the same card, featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa will defend against Whyber Garcia. Top Rank plans to have Lopez and Gamboa meet at featherweight some time in 2010, with this show and a possible HBO date on January 23 serving to set that up for the future.

But Caballero intends on confronting and personally challenging Lopez. Given that HBO is reportedly interested in the fight and that fight fans have responded to the idea with a big "yes," it's probably as good as done. It seems likely now that Lopez and Caballero will meet on January 23 to unify titles at 122 pounds.

Currently, the RING Magazine world championship at 122 pounds is vacant, as Israel Vazquez gave up the championship so that he can move up to featherweight in his October return. Caballero is currently ranked No. 1, with Lopez at No. 2. Assuming Lopez dusts Mtagwa as we all expect, Caballero-Lopez would indeed be fought for the vacant, legit world championship at 122 pounds.

Lewkowicz also says that Chris John will be back in the States to fight again in February or March, and that HBO will televise that fight. As Brick mentioned earlier, John's promoters aren't exactly keen on him having another tough fight, as they believe the 30-year old is nearing the end of his career. I'd personally love to see John take on any of the other titlists at 126, and like Brick, I'd pick him to beat either Elio Rojas or Steven Luevano, if maybe not Yuriorkis Gamboa or Cristobal Cruz. Cruz is like a Rocky Juarez that actually starts from the opening bell, which could give John some real problems despite John having the skill to burn in comparison to Cruz.

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I wonder if they'll still have John on the Jones-Green undercard

I wouldn’t be too surprised if they do have him face a softer touch on that undercard, if they’re offering him a spot. John has fought on Green’s undercards before, and this one probably stands to make decent money since it will also be on PPV in the US. An early December bout would give John plenty of time to heal up for a fight in February or March.

If they do want to go that route, he’s have plenty of options to choose from. As of the July (the WBA hasn’t updated their website in forever), guys in the top 15 included Roinet Caballero, Jose Rojas, Justin Savi (who?), Jonathan Barros (what?), Oleg Yefimovych (where?), Ryol Li Lee (why?), Feider Viloria (huh?) and Francisco Cordero (presumably not the baseball player).

Heck, I had to look up most of these guys.

Savi – 22-0 fighter, never left West Africa, last four bouts were against guys making their pro debuts.

Barros – 25-0-1 – fought a couple guys with decent records, but never left Argentina, which is the equivalent of fighting in Oklahoma

Yefimovych – 16-1, fighting guys with decent records, but no names I recognize

Lee – just barely beat Hiroyuki Enoki, who got destroyed by John

Viloria – Lost 4 of his last 6

Cordero – 20-0 beating up cabdrivers in Colombia. Combined record of opponents: 43-174

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Sep 22, 2009 7:45 PM EDT reply actions

Viloria just got the crap beat out of him by Roman Martinez

by JohnUtah on Sep 23, 2009 7:25 AM EDT up reply actions

Wow, Caballero is seriously demanding an ass whooping!

"Penelosa is not human." -Max Kellerman on Gerry Penelosa during the Juan Manuel Lopes-Gerry Penelosa bout.

by Sickle on Sep 22, 2009 9:25 PM EDT reply actions

on the topic of featherweight/jr featherweight

Bernard Dunne vs. Poonsawat…who does everyone got?

by OmarLittle on Sep 22, 2009 10:07 PM EDT reply actions

Dunne

Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes

by Scott Christ on Sep 22, 2009 10:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Poonsawat by late KO

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Sep 23, 2009 12:51 AM EDT up reply actions

Caballero

You have to give the dude some credit: all his talking might just be about to pay off. It seems like this fight is pretty likely to happen. One thing’s for sure: Juanma Lopez wants it bad.

I think Lopez would beat him easily, though it’ll be interesting to see whether Caballero’s taunting gets to him. Lopez is still a pretty young fighter, and, to some degree, a little inexperienced. From the way he’s reacted so far, my guess is that he’ll come out swinging at the bell—hell, it wouldn’t even surprise me if a fight broke out in the ring after the Mtawga bout.

by kgon47 on Sep 22, 2009 11:21 PM EDT reply actions