The recent massive earthquake which struck Puerto Rico earlier this week has left many on the island without power and water.
In an odd way, it also leaves Patrick Teixeira and Brian Castaño with a few more days than expected to come to terms for their ordered title fight.
The pair of junior middleweights and their respective teams have spent the better part of the past 30 days negotiating for a World Boxing Organization (WBO) ordered title fight. The bout was ordered last December during the annual WBO convention, where Brazil’s Teixera (31-1, 22KOs) was upgraded from interim to full 154-pound titlist after previous champ Jaime Munguia vacated in favor of a run in the middleweight division.
A delay in an ordered purse bid hearing has come about, however, due to the WBO offices—which are located in Puerto Rico’s capital city of San Juan—being closed in light of island-wide damage sustained by Tuesday’s earthquake.
Interestingly, the extended talks come at a time when rumors have surfaced of Teixeira entertaining a fight with unbeaten three-division and reigning welterweight titlist Terence Crawford (36-0, 27KOs). The suggested pairing comes as a surprise to handlers representing Teixeira and Castaño, with both sides still very interested in proceeding with the mandatory title and generally pleased with progress made thus far.
Teixeira is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and is managed by Patrick Nascimento. Argentina’s Castaño is managed by Sebastian Contursi and fights under adviser Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), with TGB Promotions representing the former titlist in current talks.
Golden Boy and PBC habitually don’t conduct much business together, although also haven’t shied away from any opportunity that makes sense for their clients. The two sides becoming bedfellows for this pairing came about after internationally renowned Sean Gibbons—on behalf of TGB and PBC—requested the appointment of Castaño as the mandatory challenger during to the WBO convention.
Castaño (16-0-1, 12KOs) is a former secondary titleholder with the World Boxing Association (WBA), having vacated the belt this past summer after scrapping plans for a mandatory title defense rematch versus France’s Michel Soro. The two fought in 2017, with Castaño winning a decision but his team having to take Soro’s handlers to court in order to get paid.
The lack of financial assurances or sufficient drug testing was enough to prompt Castaño’s team to bail from history threatening to repeat itself, thus opting to give up the belt. He’s since fought in November, scoring a one-sided injury stoppage win over Wale Omotoso in a bout with a WBO regional title at stake. It was enough to keep his place high among the sanctioning body’s rankings, and sliding into the number-one position following Teixeira’s interim title win over Carlos Adames last November in Las Vegas.
The reign lasted all of four days, before Teixeira received the good news of becoming a true titleholder, coming the day before his 29th birthday. Now he awaits news of his first title defense, with that matter likely to be cleared up once the WBO and the rest of Puerto Rico is up and running in the coming days.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox