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After shuffling around several dates and ideas. Puerto Rico Best Boxing has a target date or March 28 for the return of WBO junior flyweight champion Ivan Calderon (32-0, 6KOs). Calderon has been sidelined since suffering a bad cut during last August's rematch with Hugo Fidel Cazares. The event will take place in Puerto Rico.
After some minor tweaking, Paul Williams (36-1, 27KOs) vs. Winky Wright (51-4-1, 25KOs) has been finalized for April 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. HBO will televise the fight. Williams, the current WBO interim-junior middleweight champion, will move up to 160-pounds to fight Wright, who is a former undisputed champion at 154 and fighting for the first time since a July 07 decision loss to Bernard Hopkins.
Former three division champion Marco Antonio Barrera plans to expose the chin of UK lightweight star Amir Khan. The two collide on March 14 at the MEN Arena in Manchester. Barrera says that a win over Khan will put him in position for a title shot. He thinks Khan makes too many mistakes and has a suspect chin.
According to promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, if Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (38-0, 29KOs) defeats Carlos Nascimento on the March 28 Latin Fury pay-per-view from Tijuana, Mexico, and John Duddy (25-0, 17KOs) overcomes Matt Vanda on February 21 in New York’s Madison Square Garden - the two fighters could collide in the summer.
Referee Joe Cortez has fired back at former champion Juan Manuel Marquez. In an earlier news brief that ran on BoxingScene.com, Marquez revealed that he rejected the use of Cortez as the referee for the upcoming fight with Juan Diaz, scheduled for February 28 in Houston, Texas.
Beating Manny Pacquiao is the ultimate goal for Ricky Hatton. For the last few years, Hatton has become obsessed with beating the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He got his first chance in December of 2007, when he met Floyd Mayweather Jr. The fight plan backfired and Mayweather stopped the Manchester superstar in ten rounds. Hatton will get his second chance to challenge the best fighter in the world on May 2, with the MGM Grand playing host in Las Vegas.
The camps of Eric Morel and Fernando Montiel expect a tough war on March 28, when the two former champions clash for the vacant interim WBO bantamweight title in Tijuana, Mexico. Morel, since returning to the ring after a prison stint, wants to prove that he is still one of the best fighters in the lower weights.
Former champion Juan Manuel Marquez has rejected the use of veteran ref Joe Cortez for the upcoming fight with Juan Diaz, scheduled for February 28 in Houston, Texas. Marquez appears to have been concerned with the way Cortez officiated several fights that involved Mexican opponents - with a lot of focus on the terrible call with Humberto Soto being disqualified in last year's bout against Francisco Lorenzo. Soto was beating the hell out of Lorenzo, when Cortez issued a DQ call for Soto hitting the fighter as he was down, but a replay showed that no punch ever hit Lorenzo as he was on the mat.
The team of Marco Antonio Barrera is advising their fighter to postpone his upcoming bout with Amir Khan, scheduled for March 14 at the MEN Arena in Manchester. Last Saturday night in Mexico, Barrera suffered a bad cut above his left eye when opponent Freudis Rojas speared him with his head, resulting in a third-round disqualification. There are many who question Barrera's logic in facing a 1-7 opponent when a Khan fight was around the corner.
David Haye feels that IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko is afraid to fight him. Negotiations have been dragging on for a potential June 20 clash and Haye is getting concerned about the fight actually taking place. Haye is already thinking about making an alternate plan in the event of the fight fully falling apart.