Caballero wants Lopez; Chagaev, Andrade-Rigondeaux – News

By Boxing News - 09/05/2009 - Comments

By Dave Lahr: IBF/WBA super bantamweight champion Celestino Caballero (33-2, 23 KO’s) is eager to get a fight with World Boxing Organization super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez, who Caballero has unsuccessfully been chasing for the past year trying to get a fight with him. Caballero had this to say about Lopez: “Juanma Lopez can keep running from me, but I’m not going to stop chasing him.”

It seems as if Lopez is reluctant to fight Caballero right now, perhaps because he understands that he would have no chance against the tall 5’11” super bantamweight champion.

Caballero, 33, considered by most boxing experts to be the best fighter in the super bantamweight division, recently defeated Francisco Leal (14-5-2, 9 KO’s) in an 8th round stoppage on August 29th. Caballero, using short whipping punches, overwhelmed Leal with shots in every round, burying him with shot after shot. Leal tried to get in close to smother Caballero’s shots but Leal soon found out that Caballero could get almost as much power in close that he could while on the outside.

Caballero continued to batter Leal on the inside just as he had before while on the outside. In the 1st round, Caballero dropped Leal with a short chopping right hand at the end of the round. In the 2nd round, Caballero staggered Leal with a big right hand a minute into the round. In rounds three and four, Caballero punishment Leal with shots, hitting him with nonstop punches.

Leal tried to crowd him and land his own punches, but Caballero rarely let up on his punch output and continued to batter him. In the 4th round, Leal tried a new tactic by walking Caballero down, attempting to get him backing him up. Caballero proved to be good at fighting backwards, as he never stopped punching as he backed away from Leal and caught him with a lot of punches.

Leal did succeed in backing Caballero to a corner, but Caballero kept pouring it on with a steady flow of punches, giving Leal but a few opportunities to land his own shots. In rounds five and six, Leal stayed in close next to Caballero, trying to smother him.

It didn’t work. Caballero chopped away at Leal for both rounds, getting a lot of power on his short arm punches, surprisingly. Near the end of the 6th, the referee stopped the action to have Leal’s left eye examined due to a severe cut.

The action was allowed to continue, but it was clear that the fight wouldn’t be going too much longer. In the 7th round, Caballero teed off on Leal from close range for the entire round. In between rounds, the fight was stopped due to Leal’s cut.

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Chagaev gets New Trainer

Heavyweight Ruslan Chagaev (25-1-1, 17 KO’s), the former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion, has picked up a new trainer Magomed Schaburow, replacing Michael Timm, in hopes of getting his career back in order. Chagaev, 30, was stopped in the 9th round by IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko on June 20th, in Germany.

Schaburow currently trains Susi Kentikian and has done a great job with making her a champion. It’s unclear whether he can do the same thing for Chagaev at this point, because Ruslan has the Klitschko brothers barring his way for three of the titles.

However, Chagaev remains ranked high in the WBA, at number #1, and will no doubt get a shot against the winner of the bout between current WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev and David Haye on November 7th. Chagaev has already beaten Valuev once before, defeating him by a 12 round majority decision in April 2007.

This would be Chagaev’s best bet at trying to win a title, because Haye might have too much speed and power for him. It’s hard to say how a new trainer will be able to get any more out of Chagaev than his previous trainer did, because Chagaev is limited by his size, speed and lack of power in the heavyweight division.

It probably doesn’t matter who trains him. Chagaev will still be limited with only having a chance at winning the WBA heavyweight title, which currently has the weakest of the three heavyweight champions in the 35-year-old Valuev.

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Rigondeaux to Face Andrade on Sept. 18

Undefeated super bantamweight prospect Guillermo Rigondeaux (2-0, 2 KOs) will be facing Brazilian journeyman Giovanni Andrade (60-11, 49 KOs) in a 10-round bout on September 18th, at Fontainebleau Resort on Miami Beach, Florida.

This is kind of disappointing news for many Rigondeaux fans, because they were hoping that two-time Cuban Olympic gold medal winner would be facing someone a little better than this. Andrade is old in the tooth at 39, and was flattened in the 1st round not too long ago by Juan Manuel Lopez in June 2007.

It looks as if Rigondeaux has been given another stiff to look good against. I could see this is he was 21, and someone with much less amateur credentials, but is a two time Olympic Gold Medalist and is 28. He needs better opponents than this and he doesn’t have a lot of time to get up to speed in the division before he starts to show his age. Rigondeaux is trained by Freddie Roach.

On the undercard, 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Yudell Johnson 2-0 will be fighting Frankie Santos 17-7 in a good test for Johnson.

In addition to those bouts, former Cuban amateur champion Yunier Dorticos 1-0 1 KO will be fighting Melvin Miller 4-2 in cruiserweight action.

Felix Diaz 1-0 will be fighting Luis Andorno 6-5-5. Diaz, from the Dominican Republic, is the 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist.



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