Citing family concerns, Robert Guerrero has pulled out of his agreed-to March 27 HBO fight with Michael Katsidis, reports Rick Reeno.
Guerrero, who holds a title at 130 and was going to move up to 135, has a wife who has battled leukemia. Of course everyone hopes that isn't the reason, as Casey Guerrero had been reported to be in remission during Robert's recent fights.
Golden Boy will look for a replacement for Guerrero. Reeno says that one possibility is Top Rank's Brandon Rios, who fought and knocked out Jorge Teron on Top Rank Live this past Saturday night. Given the lack of star power at 135 (or coming up from 130), it's going to be tough to get Katsidis much of a name replacement. I'd guess there's a real chance that Marcos Maidana-Victor Cayo moves to the main event slot.
In other news, Rick Reeno also says that there's a chance for Timothy Bradley to defend his 140-pound title against Edwin Valero in June, and promoter Gary Shaw says he's so confident, he'll do the fight in Mexico. It's one of those promoter statements that are meant to make you say, "Ooh, that's confidence!" but then you realize Valero isn't Mexican and that the only state in the country Valero is licensed to fight in is Texas and that Valero now has visa issues. So it doesn't mean a whole lot. Supposedly Bob Arum is willing to take the fight for Valero, but something makes me doubt that. I like Valero a lot, but Bradley is a different animal than anyone he's faced, and he could make Valero look like he's stuck in concrete.