By Mark Vester

The pressure of Celestino Caballero, and the boxing public, has finally broken through to Juan Manuel Lopez. For months, Caballero has been attacking Juanma in the press and the Puerto Rican fighter has not responded but recently he spoke with the press and said that he was setting aside a date of January 23, 2010 for a unification with Caballero. Juanma will risk his WBO title and Caballero will put up his WBA/IBF belts. If the fight doesn't happen, Juanma is looking at a move to featherweight to challenge the winner of Steven Luevano's upcoming WBO title defense against Bernabe Concepcion.

"I am willing to fight Caballero whenever, but first his promoters have to sit down to speak with mine. I have listened to Caballero and not said anything, so I hope that when the fight comes, he backs up everything that he says. I am going to knock him out. He won't make it past the eight round," Juanma told Primera Hora.

If the fight comes together, Juanma is willing to postpone his move to featherweight until next June. Juanma returns on October 10 against Rogers Mtagwa in New York and Caballero faces Francisco Leal on August 29 in Mexico.

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