By Miguel Rivera
According to World Boxing Association (WBA) "regular" featherweight world champion Jesus Rojas, his next opponent could be Chinese contender Can Xu, who is the top rated boxer in the WBA rankings.
Last Saturday, Rojas lost a twelve round unanimous decision to Joseph "Jo Jo" Diaz, but the Puerto Rican boxer retained the WBA belt because the challenger could not get down to the featherweight limit of 126-pounds.
"After the fight, there was talk of making another [fight] for November or December against the first ranked challenger, who in this case is Xu. Golden Boy Promotions made a deal with him to allow Diaz to fight against me," Rojas said to Carlos Gonzalez.
It would be the second time that Xu appears in the path of Rojas.
Several months ago, the representatives of both fighters held discussions so that the fight was included as part of the July undercard where Manny Pacquiao faced Lucas Matthysse in Malaysia.
"For that fight they had offered me something good as far as the economic terms, but the promoters of Xu did not want to accept any guarantees. I wanted to be in China at least 15 days before the fight and be able to take a doctor that I trust, among other things, but they did not accept it, "Rojas said.
The Puerto Rican boxer likes the idea of having that fight in Puerto Rico, but immediately recognized that in all likelihood it will not be viable.
"I imagine they will try to bring it to the United States, although it is necessary to see if my promoter (Javier Bustillo) can bring it to Puerto Rico," he said.
Xu (14-2, 2 KO) is in the midst of an 11 fight winning streak. Of his 16 contests, he has made only two outside of China. In 2014 he visited Japan and in 2015 he was in Australia.