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Monday. Monday. So good to me. Monday. Monday. It was all I hoped it would be. Oh. Monday morning. Monday morning. Couldn't guarantee. That Monday evening. You would still be here. With me. (But you are. Look at you. Still here. On this dirty nasty stinky blog.)
EVERY OTHER DAY OF THE WEEK IS FINE, YEAH!
This could be the start of a beautiful something or other
With Julio Cesar Chavez Jr out of his September 7 fight against Brian Vera due to a cut suffered in training, there is at least a little talk out there that there miiiiiight be another reason, which is that Chavez could forget about the Vera fight and instead move on to a bout with Andre Ward. Ward is currently having trouble finding an opponent that HBO will approve, as they've already turned down Dimitri Sartison, and Edwin Rodriguez is no longer available for HBO airwaves, after signing with Al Haymon (more on that in a moment).
Ward-Chavez would be a nice money fight for both, and given that Chavez hasn't fought in a year and isn't nearly as good as Ward, probably a fairly easy night for Ward, too. Whether or not Top Rank would want to throw Chavez into that fight immediately is another question. It wouldn't seem Arum's usual modus operandi and whatnot, but if there is any feeling in the inner circle that Chavez is just going to be a guy who never "gets it together," there could be the possibility that they see cashing him out in the biggest fights they can find something worth doing.
As for Ward-Rodriguez, that's probably a no-go. Haymon fighters are blacklisted at HBO for the time being, and it would be a massive surprise to see that stance abandoned this soon. So despite the fact that Rodriguez is not functionally promoted by Golden Boy (he's with Lou DiBella, but that could change sometime soon-ish, too), he's still not on the HBO radar anymore.
Haymon signs super middleweight prospect
Stiff Jab's Gautham Nagesh reports that Haymon has signed another super middleweight, 23-year-old prospect Dominic Wade, a member of the DC-based Headbangers team, trained by Barry Hunter. Wade (12-0, 9 KO) is, as Gautham pointed out to me on Twitter, yet another super middleweight snatched up by Haymon, following Edwin Rodriguez, Anthony Dirrell, Sakio Bika, and Badou Jack. Bika holds the WBC title, which was stripped from Andre Ward for reasons that are becoming more obvious by the day (meanwhile, Vitali Klitschko has not fought, has no plans to fight, and still has his belt). Haymon is making some moves in the 168-pound division, and there are plenty of potentially interesting fights to be made. Wade isn't quite ready for those guys (well, maybe Badou Jack), but he's a promising young fighter who will probably get chances soon to showcase his talent for a bigger audience.
By the way, if you're not yet a Stiff Jab reader, you should be.
Other things
- WBC strawweight titlist Xiong Zhao Zhong reportedly turned down an offer to face Hekkie Budler, or at least that's what Budler's team says. They also call it a potential "unification" fight. Budler holds the IBO belt, and nobody cares. Nobody but Lyle Fitzsimmons.
- Trainer Bob Shannon's gym was broken into and left in quite a mess, and has been closed due to safety and health concerns. Terence Dooley had a story about it at BoxingScene.com. For now, Ricky Hatton is letting Shannon (who trained Ricky for his ill-fated 2012 comeback) work out of the Hatton gym. It's lousy all around, but hopefully something can be done.
- Caleb Truax is looking to build off of his domination of Don George and get into the serious mix at 160 pounds. The 29-year-old Truax is a solid, credible fighter, but has never really looked like a world stage guy, to be honest. I could be wrong. He may be right. I may be crazy.
never to roam never to roam never to roam never to roam