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Golden Boy Promotions signed current interim WBA junior welterweight titlist Johan Perez to a contract on Monday, and it now appears as though the 28-year-old Venezuelan will be featured on the Robert Guerrero vs Selcuk Aydin undercard in San Jose on July 28.
Perez (15-0-1, 12 KO) is a very interesting signing by GBP, a quality fighter in his prime years who beefs up their roster at 140/147 going forward. He doesn't project as a star player or anything, but right now he's a 5'11" guy fighting at 140 pounds, and physically could be a matchup issue if he's able to compete against better opponents. He does have a few solid wins, but nothing remarkable thus far.
The BoxingScene.com report linked above says that several opponents are being discussed for the July 28 date, but that Perez's team wants Michael Katsidis. I don't have any big problem with that, to be honest -- Katsidis is who he is, and he's going to fight until he either physically can't do it anymore, or he just gets sick of it.
There's no guarantee the Aussie is looking to fight by July 28, either. He lost his last fight on April 13 to Albert Mensah, despite a great physical effort that reminded of the Katsidis of old. He told MMA Heat's Karyn Bryant before the fight that if he got to a point where he didn't feel he could fight at the elite level anymore, he would retire:
"I don't have to keep on boxing. I've achieved two world titles. When the day comes that I don't feel I can get any better, I'm not gonna be perform my best and be at that elite level, well, I'm out. There's some new things I can bring to the game and this is gonna be a very big year for Katsidis."
I think we can all agree that Katsidis (28-6, 23 KO) won't be competing at the elite level again, not really anyway, but I've no idea how the fighter himself feels about that.
The thing about a potential Perez vs Katsidis fight is that nobody knows Perez yet. Katsidis' name does still have some value, and it's not like he was out there embarrassing himself against Mensah. As a competitive, championship-level fighter, yes, Katsidis is done. But I don't know that Perez is a championship-level fighter, either. Katsidis and his fans may not want to hear this, but that's the role of a gatekeeper, and Katsidis is probably a gatekeeper now.