Celestino Caballero vs Mikey Garcia: Fight Will Be On Solo Boxeo Tecate If It Happens

Celestino Caballero vs Mikey Garcia is set for July 28 at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, Calif., with Solo Boxeo Tecate on Telefutura set to televise the bout ... if it happens.

My gut feeling and that of many others is that this fight won't be coming off with these terms, which is why there are already notes that if one of the fighters refuses to sign the deal for this proposal, either Caballero would lose his WBA featherweight title, or Garcia would lose his spot as mandatory challenger.

The thing is, the way this is being set up, with Sampson Lewkowicz winning the purse bid for Caballero's side, we now have a situation where Garcia, Top Rank, and manager Cameron Dunkin are almost being dared to shoot this fight down and move on.

I don't know that that's because Caballero's team is "afraid" of Garcia or anything, since I don't think Caballero is afraid of much, but they just don't have the juice to get this a spot on HBO or Showtime. Caballero has had a few fights on those networks, but has never been a regular. Showtime has Guerrero vs Aydin that night, but that's a Golden Boy card and Golden Boy has no use for a Lewkowicz vs Top Rank fight on its show.

Garcia has a lot of upside and a lot of time. Frankly, his team could tell Team Caballero to forget about it, fight a few more times, and get a title shot somewhere else.

Maybe I'll be surprised and Garcia's team will take the risk here, fighting a tough opponent (by far their best opponent to date) on a show nobody's going to watch. But it doesn't seem to make much business sense to me, and Garcia's got smart guys guiding his career. Don't expect this one to actually happen.