By Jake Donovan
A bantamweight title fight between Randy Caballero and Lee Haskins originally intended for this weekend in Las Vegas was officially canceled on Friday. The bout was slated to serve on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto vs. Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez World middleweight title fight headliner at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but instead died at the scales as did Caballero's title reign.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission was forced to take action after Caballero weighed 123.5 lbs - a whopping 5.5 lbs. above the bantamweight limit. Fighters are normally granted one hour to lose the additional weight but that was not applicable here since the overage was more than a full weight class worth, thus deemed a safety issue.
Haskins - who weighed 117.5 lbs. - was upgraded from interim to full titlist by the International Boxing Federation (IBF). The streaking bantamweight from England entered the title fray with a 6th round knockout of Ryosuke Iwasa in June. While undoubtedly gutted over being left in Vegas without a fight after having trained for the past couple of months for his biggest career opportunity to date, he at least gets to call the shots for his next ring appearance.
The interim title fight came about due to Caballero being sidelined from an injury suffered earlier this year. In missing weight, he ends his title reign without ever defending the title he won last October. He will also likely face a hefty fine and suspension for his failure to honor the terms of his contract.
The rest of Saturday's blockbuster remains intact.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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