Steve Kim of MaxBoxing tweeted earlier tonight that Joachim Alcine may not be landing that April 13 or 14 fight with Jermain Taylor after all, and that a new name is now in the mix: Minnesota middleweight Caleb Truax.
Truax (18-0-1, 10 KO) was actually in line for a couple of fights on Showtime recently. In January, he was to face Brandon Gonzales on the Ramos vs Rigondeaux card, but that fell through when Gonzales suffered a leg injury. There were also reports last year that Truax was offered the December 30 date with Jermain Taylor, but turned it down. Taylor wound up fighting Jessie Nicklow instead, and won his first fight in over two years.
Truax, 28, last fought on May 27, defeating fellow Minnesota club star (standout?) Andy Kolle via split decision.
Notable responses to this fight have come from Ishe Smith, who called it a "terrible fight" (but then Ishe seems to think most fights are terrible, even more than I do), and former NFL quarterback Shaun King, who responded to Kim's tweet, "Man (Jermain Taylor) needs to go sit down somewhere."
If they're making this a ShoBox on April 13 -- and God knows with this lineup, the best you could possibly call it is a ShoBox, and I'm not attaching the word "special" to Taylor vs Truax and Erislandy Lara vs Ronald Hearns -- then...jeez, look, this is not a good TV fight.
Why would money be spent by Showtime on these two fights? Is there any demand whatsoever to see Taylor vs Truax and Lara vs Hearns? Any? The matchmaking at Showtime has gone south, fast. And it pains me as a boxing fan, too. I'm not saying these things to be negative on purpose, I just don't know how this helps anyone. Taylor-Alcine was at least a fight against a guy who used to be pretty good, and made sense in some was, but this?
Truax is a pure club fighter, having fought twice outside of Minnesota, and one of those fights was in South Dakota. I know they're trying to figure out what to do with Jermain, what he has left, and I'm all for seeing the fights and all that, but it just seems too mismatched for a premium network to be paying for, even if they don't pay much, even if it's on the B-show.