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

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.