RabbitPunchBoxing.com Reports:

Floyd Mayweather's opponent for his fight on January 22nd has been up in the air for awhile. First a report said that he would be fighting Gianluca Branco but he priced himself out of the fight. Next it was reported that it will be be either Lovemore N'Dou, Stevie Johnson, or Muhamad Abdulaev because HBO couldn't afford to pay for anyone else.

It appears his opponent has now changed. He will now be fighting 24 year old prospect Henry Bruseles 21-2-1 from Puerto Rico trained by Evangelista Cotto, Miguel's father.

WBA Lightweight champ Juan Diaz will be taking on 36 yr. old Canadian veteran Billy Irwin on Jan. 21st. Should Diaz win that fight, an ESPN PPV fight with IBF Lightweight champ Julio Diaz is being planned for April 2005. Julio Diaz is currently scheduled to fight a non-title bout on the undercard of the Acelino Freitas fight in Brazil on Dec. 11th.

EXCELLENT...SOMEONE I ACTUALLY SEEN BEFORE!!!

Bruseles looked really good against some scrub he fought last month..

Billy Irwin???? Everytime he's stepped up in class he lost, well at least i don't have to worry about Baby Bull Diaz losing his title. Never seen Bruseles, i guess well see how good of a prospect he is, but even if he's talented, he's stepping up - PBF will make him look bad

I think HBO and Top Rank are trying to keep Floyd out of a really tough fight so they can try to setup a PPV with Gatti if he wins against Leija. Gatti is in for a hell of a fight and I get the feeling he is going to lose to Leija in January.

MIC573...that's very close to the truth about HBO & Top Rank. Floyd has very little power with HBO and has to take what he can get right now. I know it sounds weird but it's the truth.

Billy Irwin is the wrong level for Juan Diaz to be fighting at this point. He's at least a step or two below Julien Lorcy. If a fight with Jauregui were made at least Diaz would be maintaining basically the same level of competition.

I don't think I like Floyd's choice of opponent. While I agree it's better to stay active against virtual nobodies than to actually fight nobody, I nonetheless have a hard time swallowing this matchup. I just don't like it. It's not that Bruseles is a bad fighter, he's just undedeveloped for Floyd to be taking him on. Another opponent on the same level with Demarcus Corley is right for Floyd.

gatti has said he will fight PBF after liejo (which he will win)...so yeah the wanna keep PBF safe for now

Billy Irwin is the wrong level for Juan Diaz to be fighting at this point. He's at least a step or two below Julien Lorcy. If a fight with Jauregui were made at least Diaz would be maintaining basically the same level of competition.

I don't think I like Floyd's choice of opponent. While I agree it's better to stay active against virtual nobodies than to actually fight nobody, I nonetheless have a hard time swallowing this matchup. I just don't like it. It's not that Bruseles is a bad fighter, he's just undedeveloped for Floyd to be taking him on. Another opponent on the same level with Demarcus Corley is right for Floyd.

ahh, They're tune up fights.

word up on that