By Jake Donovan

It began as a card eagerly awaited by boxing fans, so much that they didn’t mind the $40 price tag that came along with April 4 pay-per-view show. A night of lightweights – past, present and future – in elimination style format, with the suggestion that the four winners would whittle down to two, and then down to a last man standing posing as the most formidable challenge to the division’s top prize.

Now less than two weeks prior to the opening bell, the elimination factor remains intact. Only not in the way the event’s promoters envisioned.

Joel Casamayor became the show’s latest casualty, with a lumbar spine sprain forcing the former lineal lightweight champion to withdraw from his10-round bout with Julio Diaz. The match was to serve as the chief support to the lone alphabet title fight of the evening, between Edwin Valero and Antonio Pitulua.

Casamayor’s fall out comes on the heels of Jorge Barrios also sent to the injury list after an ear injury forced the outspoken Argentinean off of the card earlier this month. Barrios has since been replaced by Vicente Escobedo, who will now face former junior lightweight titlist Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez in the opening bout of the telecast.

Efforts are being made to secure a replacement for Casamayor as well. The latest rumors had names including and on the level of Rolando Reyes. The contingency plan is to go to three “contender-level” lightweight bouts and two more slots going toward lightweight prospects in the Golden Boy stable.

What has yet to be replaced is the luster that once came with this card.

When first announced, the event carried similar enthusiasm to an April 2005 ESPN pay-per-view card that carried the tagline “four great fights, one great price.” That card, headlined by Antonio Margarito’s first knockout win over a then-undefeated Kermit Cintron, took a hit when Juan Diaz opted to drop out of the show. Some in the industry suggested a revised slogan for the show – “three good fights, one good price.”

The card, which also included Shane Mosley in a welterweight comeback fight against David Estrada and then-undefeated Calvin Brock facing Jameel McCline in a heavyweight crossroads bout, posted a respectable 150,000 pay-per-view buys at a buy rate of just under $30 per. Even with Diaz dropping out, there was still plenty of value to be found in three fights offering something to the sport’s future.

As it stood, this card features four fights, some relevant to the future of the lightweight division, but all lacking a true headliner. Valero-Pitulua is a solid matchup between legitimate top ten lightweights, but hardly noteworthy beyond the cult level. Hernandez-Escobedo and even Michael Katsidis-Jesus Chavez are fights better suited for Azteca America or ESPN2 Friday Night Fights, and both of which will prove to be more damaging to the loser than beneficial to the winner.

Still, the sum of the parts made the show appealing as a whole, largely in part to its originally slated co-feature battle between Casamayor and Julio Diaz. A faded former lineal king facing a comebacking ex-titlists while both are still factors in the division makes for a far more intriguing crossroads fight than any of the other supporting cast members on the card.

Barrios dropping out due to injury wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, though now removed from the equation is his colorful personality, as he was already making a play for a future fight with Valero as early as the first pre-fight press conference formally announcing the show. In regards to the future of the sport, Escobedo has more to offer, even if his facing the badly faded Hernandez is less of a pick-‘em than would’ve been a matchup of equally declining ex-junior lightweight titlists.

But losing that chief support is a major hit to a card that continues to change shape. Now gone are Casamayor and Barrios. Yet to be seen or heard from in the promotion is Michael Katsidis, who was conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s media conference call. Then there is Golden Boy Promotions already backing off of its initial promise of a “lightweight tournament,” having since been downgraded to “tournament-style event.”

 

While few bought into the theory that the last man standing from the original lineup would make for the true top lightweight contender, lineal lightweight king Juan Manuel Marquez might be in need of such a challenger now more than ever. Earlier suggestions had Marquez possibly facing Floyd Mayweather Jr should the undefeated former welterweight and pound for pound king opt to come out of retirement and decide to look his way.

Marquez and dozens of other fighters from lightweight all the way to junior middleweight may very well get what they asked for, as rumors have swirled of a potential summer return for Money May.

The only problem is, none of the rumors have once suggested he’s looking to take Marquez up on his offer for a pound-for-pound showdown. Mayweather has instead dropped two other names – well, three really: Shane Mosley, and the May 2 winner between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton.

Chances are, he’ll lean far more toward waiting out May 2 than to go out of his way to give the resurging and naturally bigger Mosley a career-high payday. But before he does any of that, talks are underway for a July return, most likely in a tune-up level fight and hopefully on HBO.

While all bets are seemingly off until May 2 plays out, Juan Manuel Marquez is still conceivably left without a dance partner for the foreseeable future. Obviously the plan was to draw Pacquiao, Hatton or Mayweather into an autumn super fight. The only way that could still play out is if Hatton emerges victorious in May, since a Mayweather-Hatton rematch wouldn’t draw enough interest to satisfy the financial demands that would come with such a fight.

Hatton and Marquez are both under contract with Golden Boy, which would make the fight that much easier to make.

Whatever the case, Marquez is forced to join Mayweather and Mosley in waiting out the May 2 result. The April 4 “Lightweight Lightning” show will be in the books by then, though chances are that we won’t be any closer to producing the next lightweight challenger than we are today.

 

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Please feel free to contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.