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Johnriel Casimero Still Carries Chips on His Shoulder, Targets Donaire and Inoue Next By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Thu, 19 Aug 2021  For a guy who has added Guillermo Rigondeaux to Zolani Tete as big names he had exposed and shamed atop the ring in less than two years at bantamweight, Johnriel Casimero is still a hungry fighter out to prove himself as he carries an imaginary chips on his shoulder, daring rivals to try and knock them off. Minutes after defeating and defending his WBO world bantamweight title against the Cuban known as The Jackal by well deserved split decision, Casimero in a ringside interview, enumerated WBC titlist Nonito Donaire, Jr and WBA-IBF unified champion Naoya Inoue as his next target opponents. And he has reasons other than annexing their belts. Johnriel could not forget how Inoue through Top Rank promoter Bob Arum left him to hang and dry in Las Vegas after reneging on their contract for a high profile unification fight in April 2020 which had to be reset in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Already in the USA since February 2020, Johnriel had to extend his stay up to nearly past summer that year hoping for the arrival of Inoue and for Arum to schedule a new date following the return of pro boxing in the US in June. Inoue was finally allowed to leave Japan and enter the US in August but by that time, Arum had signed another opponent for the Monster - Australian Jason Moloney. Earlier, Arum told reporters that under the circumstances, he could only proceed with the Inoue-Casimero match if both would agree to a pay cut, of which he claimed Inoue was amenable to. He said he would consult the camp of Johnriel. But Johnriel claimed that Arum never touched base with them, either personally or through other means before the deadline he himself set. "Nothing. No word was heard from Arum since. The next time we heard from him was through press releases, that he had dropped us and had finalized a deal with Moloney. If I see him, I will punch him in the face," Johnriel would say or words to that effect in a later interview. Not wanting for their stay in the US to go for naught and to recoup their expenses, the Casimero camp through MP Promotions president Sean Gibbons was able to secure a spot in a forthcoming Tom Brown Promotions card in Connecticut for his initial defense of his WBO title versus Ghanaian mandatory challenger Duke Micah. Inoue as expected went on to keep his unified championship by seventh round knockout of Moloney in September while Johnriel defended his world crown by brutal third round stoppage of the erstwhile undefeated Micah. Since then, Johnriel had taken advantage of every opportunities to slam Arum and Inoue, especially Naoya whom he claimed as no Monster but a Japanese Turtle. The most recent has been in the aftermath of the Rigondeaux fight where he again slammed Inoue and ended it with a stuck middle finger. It was reported that Inoue saw that post fight interview as he was performing the role of color commentator on Japanese television which aired the bout and he was so indignant that he called for a fight versus Casimero to be immediately organized. Well, it seems that his wished for fight versus Naoya Inoue may happen sooner than Johnriel has expected. Even ahead of his other wish for fight against Nonito Donaire Jr with whom he also had a spat following Donaire coming in as a supposed better replacement for Rigondeaux in that scheduled August 14 bout in which Donaire also later pulled out from due to VADA drug test issue disagreements. Johnriel from then on carries the grudge against Nonito and his manager wife for their alleged bad treatment and for their attempt to unfairly dictating the terms of the fight. Who between Inoue and Donaire will be the first to dare knock those chips off Johnriel Casimero's shoulder? Abangan. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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