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source http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5582971
• Former light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver's heavyweight debut against Nagy Aguilera on Oct. 15 (Showtime) will likely take place in McAllen, Texas. Opening the Gary Shaw-promoted card will be hot prospect Shawn Porter (16-0, 12 KOs), who has been fighting at junior middleweight but is a bit undersized for the division. So he's going down to welterweight to fight a 10-rounder against an opponent to be named. Also on the card, but not on television: former junior welterweight titlist Kendall Holt (25-4, 13 KOs), who is scheduled to face an opponent to be determined at 144 pounds. Holt, idle since February, has lost two in a row, a title unification match against Timothy Bradley Jr. followed by a sixth-round TKO loss in a major upset to Kaizer Mabuza.
• Featherweight titlist Chris John's twice-postponed defense against Argentina's Fernando Saucedo (38-4-3, 1 KO) has been rescheduled for Dec. 1 in Jakarta, Indonesia, John's home country, adviser Sampson Lewkowicz told ESPN.com. The fight was originally scheduled for May, but John (43-0-2, 22 KOs) postponed it because of a shoulder injury. A rib injury in July forced it to be delayed again. "We have signed contracts with the venue and sponsors and opponent," Lewkowicz said. However, the WBA is threatening the fight, having ordered John to face Yuriorkis Gamboa, whom the WBA also recognizes as a titleholder. The WBA ordered the winner of last week's Gamboa-Orlando Salido unification match to face John within 120 days. Gamboa won, but, said Lewkowicz, "We never agreed to fight the winner in that time frame. We need to honor our contract with Saucedo and we will request that the WBA allow us to honor our word. We will fight Saucedo and then we'd love to fight Gamboa next, in February or March. If we can't make an agreement with Gamboa, we go to purse bid." It would be a 55-45 split in John's favor if there was a purse bid. Carl Moretti of Top Rank, Gamboa's co-promoter, said the company welcomes a fight with John. "We're happy to do that fight, we just need a date to do it on," he said. "We need to talk to HBO and see when they want Gamboa back on. I would imagine early next year. If that's the case, we could make the fight with John, but we also need to know the WBA's position."
• It looks more and more like Celestino Caballero, the featherweight contender nobody wants to fight, will move up to junior lightweight to face Jason Litzau on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Michael Katsidis HBO undercard in Las Vegas on Nov. 27. Lou DiBella, Caballero's promoter, said he has a deal with Square Ring's John Wirt, Litzau's promoter. Caballero preferred to fight at featherweight but several potential opponents didn't work out. Jonathan Barros, who hurt titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa in a decision loss to him in March, was dropped over issues related to ownership of television rights in his native Argentina. Matt Remillard was on the short list, but that didn't work out because of problems between him and his promoter. Since the fight is on a Golden Boy card, there was talk of a match with undefeated prospect Carlos Velasquez, but that went nowhere because Golden Boy and DiBella couldn't work out an option agreement. "Caballero would prefer to fight in his own division, but if he can't, he will go up and fight Litzau," DiBella said. "One thing I know -- that's a good fight and a test for both guys."
• Featherweight titlist Chris John's twice-postponed defense against Argentina's Fernando Saucedo (38-4-3, 1 KO) has been rescheduled for Dec. 1 in Jakarta, Indonesia, John's home country, adviser Sampson Lewkowicz told ESPN.com. The fight was originally scheduled for May, but John (43-0-2, 22 KOs) postponed it because of a shoulder injury. A rib injury in July forced it to be delayed again. "We have signed contracts with the venue and sponsors and opponent," Lewkowicz said. However, the WBA is threatening the fight, having ordered John to face Yuriorkis Gamboa, whom the WBA also recognizes as a titleholder. The WBA ordered the winner of last week's Gamboa-Orlando Salido unification match to face John within 120 days. Gamboa won, but, said Lewkowicz, "We never agreed to fight the winner in that time frame. We need to honor our contract with Saucedo and we will request that the WBA allow us to honor our word. We will fight Saucedo and then we'd love to fight Gamboa next, in February or March. If we can't make an agreement with Gamboa, we go to purse bid." It would be a 55-45 split in John's favor if there was a purse bid. Carl Moretti of Top Rank, Gamboa's co-promoter, said the company welcomes a fight with John. "We're happy to do that fight, we just need a date to do it on," he said. "We need to talk to HBO and see when they want Gamboa back on. I would imagine early next year. If that's the case, we could make the fight with John, but we also need to know the WBA's position."
• It looks more and more like Celestino Caballero, the featherweight contender nobody wants to fight, will move up to junior lightweight to face Jason Litzau on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Michael Katsidis HBO undercard in Las Vegas on Nov. 27. Lou DiBella, Caballero's promoter, said he has a deal with Square Ring's John Wirt, Litzau's promoter. Caballero preferred to fight at featherweight but several potential opponents didn't work out. Jonathan Barros, who hurt titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa in a decision loss to him in March, was dropped over issues related to ownership of television rights in his native Argentina. Matt Remillard was on the short list, but that didn't work out because of problems between him and his promoter. Since the fight is on a Golden Boy card, there was talk of a match with undefeated prospect Carlos Velasquez, but that went nowhere because Golden Boy and DiBella couldn't work out an option agreement. "Caballero would prefer to fight in his own division, but if he can't, he will go up and fight Litzau," DiBella said. "One thing I know -- that's a good fight and a test for both guys."
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