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Good morning. Today is the first day of Boxing Breakfast, which will be a(n almost) daily early morning roundup of boxing news tidbits and views on said tidbits, plus a few links around the web to get your day off to a fine start with the sweet science. And some other stuff, including Song of the Day. Why? Because. Because, that's why.
OH HEY! Don't forget I'll be on The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo today. The show starts at 2pm EDT, and will be archived shortly after for those who can't listen live. We're gonna talk some boxing. I'm not sure exactly what. Just boxing. Probably the bantamweight mess among other things.
Jonathan Victor Barros to Face Celestino Caballero
Featherweight contenders Jonathan Victor Barros (32-1-1, 18 KO) and Celestino Caballero (34-3, 23 KO) have signed to fight in Barros' home country of Argentina. Ludo Saenz Luaces of NotiFight.com/BoxingScene.com reports that the bout could take place on June 17, 18, 24 or 25.
It goes without saying that this probably isn't the fight that the 34-year-old Caballero expected he'd not just want but need to start his 2011, but he took a fight in late November at 130 pounds with Jason Litzau and lost, so them's the breaks. The truth about Caballero, from where I sit, is quite simple. He can't really box, but at 5'11" he holds such an awkward height advantage over most of his opponents that he can just slap them around. That's why even coming off the loss to Litzau, I would say he's still too risky a fight for some of the top guys to want to face, or perhaps more accurately for their promoters to want to risk it. Why would Top Rank have Yuriorkis Gamboa or Juan Manuel Lopez fight Caballero when he's worth zero money and is such a pain in the ass?
But Caballero has issues with guys he doesn't tower over. I don't think this is rocket science or anything. The bad news for Caballero? Barros is listed at 5'9" -- a big featherweight in his own right, and a guy who hung in for 12 last year with Gamboa in Germany. This is a good fight. And I think I like Barros at the moment, too. Caballero isn't getting any younger, and I know it borders on pure hatin', but I've just never been impressed with the guy.
Mixed Signals? Marquez Wants Pacquiao, but Still Considering Golden Boy
Juan Manuel Marquez says his ultimate goal is still a third fight with Manny Pacquiao. OK, that's nothing new. But Marquez, the reigning legitimate lightweight champion of the world, says he's still mulling a new offer to continue on at Golden Boy Promotions. As you know, Pacquiao fights for Top Rank, a company that doesn't work with Golden Boy Promotions under any circumstances these days. So if he does fight for Golden Boy -- which he isn't committed to -- he can forget about Pacquiao.
Marquez says his next fight will be in June or July. In what may or may not be a coincidence, Erik Morales is also said to be tentatively set to return in July. That fight's probably more attractive right now than at any point since, oh, 2005.
After the jump: News on Tomoki Kameda facing Abner Mares (he's not gonna), the Link Parade! featuring Timothy Bradley not knowing who Paul McCloskey is, and the Song of the Day.
Tomoki Kameda Not Available for Saturday
Shortly after Joseph Agbeko pulled out of Saturday's fight with Abner Mares yesterday evening, Tomoki Kameda's name popped up as a potential very short-notice replacement. The 19-year-old Kameda, the youngest of the famous Japanese boxing family, is a real talent with a record of 18-0 (12 KO), and works with Saul Alvarez's Canelo Promotions in Mexico. But Miguel Rivera of BoxingScene.com reports that Kameda isn't going to take the fight, as he's training in Manila for a May 7 fight in Japan. That fight will come on the undercard of older brother Koki's bantamweight trinket defense against Daniel Diaz. Probably smart for the young action fighter to not rush halfway across the world to fight someone as good as Mares on such short notice. Would have been a fun fight to watch, however.
Link Parade!
- Fightnews.com has a Q&A with Timothy Bradley. Choice Quote: "Amir better not fight me like that, let's put it that way, if he does he's going to have a hard time in there with me. Amir Khan said that in his fight with McCloskey he wanted to have a better performance than I did in my fight against a world class opponent in Devon Alexander and he had the same type of performance if not worse, he didn't do any better against a contender, not even a contender. I didn't even know who Paul McCloskey was, a journeyman or something; I don't know what he was."
- Steve Kim of MaxBoxing.com has a nice feature on Yonnhy Perez. I'm glad Perez is getting so much strong press coverage this week, and join Steve in hoping his fight goes on this weekend. I'm too ready to rumble. I can't have the card called off. I'll feel like that guy when Forrest Gump decides to stop running and go home. "Now what are we supposed to do?"
- Alex McClintock of The Queensberry Rules talks some featherweight division boxing.
- Kotsya Tszyu is training Denis Lebedev for his May 21 fight with Roy Jones Jr., you know, because Lebedev really needs all the help in the world.
- On a personal note, Zab Judah continues to freak me out by being about the nicest guy out there.
Song of the Day
Over the last year, I have become a bigger and bigger fan of the legendary Fats Domino. At the moment, this is my favorite song of his, "Walking to New Orleans." (Another strong contender is "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans.")