By Mark Vester

Rocky Juarez was hoping to face WBA featherweight champ Chris John, but will now face the hard-punching former champion Jorge Barrios. The fight will take place on the undercard to Juan Diaz vs. Michael Katsidis at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. HBO will televise both fights live on their "Boxing After Dark" telecast on September 6. A press conference has been scheduled by Golden Boy Promotions to announce both fights.

In a follow-up to an earlier story, despite the published report by the Irish Sun, junior middleweight contender Jamie Moore has not been promised a bout with undefeated John Duddy, at least not by [Duddy's promoters] Irish Ropes.

Jim Borzell, director of boxing for Irish Ropes, informed BoxingScene.com that a promise [from their end] was never made to Moore's promoter Tommy Egan. Egan did reach out to Irish Ropes to put together a possible Duddy-Moore bout, but Duddy is looking at much bigger fights with IBF 154-pound Verno Phillips and the winner of Friday's WBA title bout between Joachim Alcine and Daniel Santos in Montreal. Moore would be considered if certain criteria are met.

"Jaimie Moore has never been promised anything except by his promoter Tommy Egan.  Should John win the world championship, we would "consider" Jaimie Moore.  THAT was as far as any "promise" went," Borzell said. 

"We would, of course give that same commitment to any legitimate challenger except that; 1. Duddy hasn't won anything yet and; 2. the boxer under consideration would have to be the mandatory or highly ranked by the appropriate sanctioning body. and; 3. If John were successful, any challenger would have to compliment or exceed John's ability to raise financial interest.  I think that one would be able to make a fairly clear assessment of each challenger's chances of actually fighting John based on those factors.

"So Jaimie, your fine athletic ability is unquestioned.  You might want to review your drawing power to assess your future as far as being a viable candidate for a possible Duddy world championship defense.  Perhaps, you should ask Mr. Egan to produce what he promised you."

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