The night of November 27th was a frustrating one for former two-time super bantamweight champion Celestino Caballero. Facing off with cheeky Minnesota brawler Jason Litzau at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the Panamanian seemed out of sync and had trouble with Litzau?s aggression at key spots in the fight. After ten up and down rounds Caballero would surrender a huge split-decision upset that temporarily set back some of his ring aspirations.
One fight prior Caballero had looked excellent in overwhelming then-undefeated Daud Yordan in Sunrise, Florida in a featherweight duel, dominating the action with a steady stream of activity to the body and head. Following the victory Caballero went on record and called out the likes of champions Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa, two men he had been eyeing for a few years? time. Since neither would take the bait he had to move up four pounds to the junior lightweight class for the Litzau clash, a move that he may be regretting at this point.
What is rather peculiar is the fact that over the past few years Lopez had always been rather quiet in regards to answering Caballero?s call for a showdown. His silence spoke volumes about how unimportant the bout was to him at the time yet after Caballero?s loss he finally spoke up, claiming that the lanky boxer-puncher was simply a B-level fighter and that he always knew he wasn?t on his level.
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Adding to the bemusement, our friends at Boxing Scene are reporting that Lopez? next two options for his upcoming fight in April appear to be against either WBC champion Elio Rojas or Litzau, the man who defeated Caballero weeks back. It seems odd that Lopez would never even acknowledge the idea of a Caballero fight yet may be fighting the man who just upset him.
The best possible scenario would be to have Caballero rematch Litzau himself, as that rumor has also been floating around, while Lopez faces off with Rojas, a very capable titlist with Dominican roots, with the winners eventually meeting up. Rojas is trained by Kevin Cunningham, who also oversees the duties of junior welterweight champion Devon Alexander, and Rojas was spotted in the Vegas area earlier this year preparing for a face off with Gamboa before he injured his shoulder and saw the fight slip away.
When I spoke to Caballero?s trainer Jeff Mayweather at the end of last month he revealed that perhaps Celestino peaked too soon in camp and admitted that he should have monitored certain aspects of his training a little bit better. At the end of the day Caballero can?t make any excuses for his performance against Litzau because this is simply an unforgiving sport, but he should be granted with a chance at redemption after all the years of professionalism he has showed.
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If Lopez ends up facing off with Litzau and is successful he may end up meeting undefeated Mikey Garcia sometime in September. It?s no secret that Top Rank has been trying to build a Lopez-Gamboa matchup and Caballero very well could find himself out of the equation when all is said and done. It wouldn?t be the first time that something like that happened in the sport but I can?t help but find it ironic that Lopez only really chose to speak up about Caballero after his recent defeat.
Lopez has settled into the featherweight division well and in 2010 he has scored stoppage victories over Steven Luevano, Bernabe Concepcion and most recently Rafael Marquez at the MGM Grand on November 6th. Whatever path he takes he has certainly established himself as one of the sport?s most promising and exciting champions.
