Celestino Caballero forced to move up, will fight on 27 November
Top boxer and reggae recording artist Celestino Caballero has moved up in weight again to challenge Jason Litzau on 27 November.
Caballero, long considered one of the most avoided fighters in the sport, was unable to lure a quality opponent for a second featherweight fight and has thus moved to super featherweight (130lb).
The 10-round bout will open a HBO card headlined by Juan Manuel Marquez and Michael Katsidis competing for the lightweight WBO and WBA titles. The show will be at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
There is talk that WBC welterweight champ Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KOs) will be added to the card in a mandatory defense against Selcuk Aydin (20-0, 15 KOs), who holds the silver WBC title.
Lou Dibella, who promotes Caballero and Berto, confirmed the news.
In recent months there has been significant controversy between Berto and Selcuk. After the WBC ordained a fight between the two, Berto’s camp said they were not interested because they felt Selcuk was
not in their league. It is still unclear whether Berto will fight Selcuk or choose to vacate his title and move up in weight, after negotiations for a prospective fight with Shane Mosley dissolved.
Chances are if the money is right by Berto’s standards he will accept the challenge. Berto seems unwilling to compromise big HBO paydays after receiving them in his last few fights.
Of Caballero, Dibella said: "Caballero is moving up because he basically has to. He's outgrown the 122-pound weight class. At 126, he is unquestionably being avoided. If we could have worked out suitable
opposition we could have made a reasonable deal, and he would have stayed at 126. It didn't happen.”
Caballero (34-2, 23 KOs) took on Daud Yordan in April in his first featherweight bout. He devastated the undefeated Yordan. Since he has insisted on fighting one of the top featherweights, such as Juan
Manuel Lopez or Yuriorkis Gamboa, but neither responded to his challenges.
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