By Ronnie Nathanielsz
WBO No.1 ranked lightweight Michael Katsidis gets a crack at the interim lightweight title against No. 4 ranked Vicente Escobedo on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr – Juan Manuel Marquez clash at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on September 19. Marquez is the current WBO lightweight champion.
The trainer/manager of the Australian who is popular with Filipino fight fans after he stood in for ring hero Manny Pacquiao as captain of the Philippine boxing team in the World Cup against Mexico at the Arco Arena in August 2007 said Katisids has been training in Thailand. However, Brendon Smith said he would set up training camp in Las Vegas within the week.
Smith was quoted as the Aussie website SportsNut saying “We've been preparing for the fight and I understand Escobedo has been preparing in Mexico”
Smith said “We've been negotiating for a while and there was a slight hiccup last week, but everything was confirmed this morning” after the Katsidis team had reportedly worked hard for some twelve months to get another world title shot.
The 28 year old Katsidis has a record of 25-2 with 21 knockouts and is best remembered for his bloody and exciting brawl with Filipino southpaw Czar Amonsot on July 21, 2007 which Katsidis won but looked like the loser with his face a bloody mess. Both fighters wound up in hospital side-by-side and after a tiny speck of blood was discovered outside Amonsot’s brain he was not allowed to fight in Las Vegas but has subsequently recovered completely and been cleared to fight.
In his last fight Katsidis scored an 8th round TKO over Jesus Chavez as Chavez quit in his corner at the end of the seventh round. Prior to that Katsidis scored lackluster ten round decision over Angel Hugo Ramirez at the Cebu Coliseum after dropping a twelve round split decision in a clash for the vacant IBO lightweight title against Juan Diaz.
The 27 year old Escobedo (21-1, 13 KO’s) is coming off a 2nd round knockout of the badly faded former champion Kevin Kelley last May 21, 2009 after beating another former IBF super featherweight champion Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez by a ten round unanimous decision on April 4, 2009.
After the KO win over Kelley, Smith said Escobedo was “ going along pretty well,” but added “It's been nearly 12 months since Michael had a shot a world title and we're confident of a win, that's for sure.”
