I might be more optimistic about boxing’s 2010 if a summer slump of good match-ups showed any signs of letting up. But, in this week’s brief Round and Round, observe:
Former middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik is weighing some options, such as maybe staying at middleweight rather than moving to 168. Kinda makes you wonder why he didn’t decide that sooner, considering the rematch option he had for Sergio Martinez. But he is contemplating fighting on the Lucian Bute undercard in October at 168. Reportedly, HBO would approve Librado Andrade as an opponent, and boy howdy I sure as hell would approve of it. That sounds like a barrel of monkeys.
Shane Mosley might be fighting at junior middleweight next against Sergio Mora, but he’s open to moving back down to welterweight and fighting Andre Berto, a fight that got canceled earlier this year. I remain very interested in it. Before Mosley’s loss to Floyd Mayweather, I figured Berto as a real underdog against Mosley, but every month Mosley ages, and he looked somewhat old against Mayweather, makes Mosley-Berto more competitive.
Middleweight Felix Sturm is looking for an opponent, now that he’s free of promoter Universum, and there’ve been discussions of Kermit Cintron. Cintron promoter Lou DiBella said the amount of money offered has been too little, but it’s hard to imagine where Cintron goes next if not overseas for some cash.
Welterweight belt holder Jan Zaveck will be doing a rematch with Rafal Jackiewicz Sept. 4, which is a good thing because the first fight was a bit controversial. Actually, if there’s any match ever along the outskirts of the division in fights for crappy belts it’s all controversial — throw in Isaac Hlatshwayo, Delvin Rodriguez, Selcuk Aydin and Jo Jo Dan and you’ve got a half-dozen or so close, disputed decisions in the division over the last year or two.
Heavyweight Chris Arreola’s return is slated for Friday Night Fights against Manuel Quezada on Aug. 13. Quezada upset Travis Walker a while back, then lost his last fight by split decision to Jason Gavern, and while neither of those fighters are Arreola, Quezada poses a decent test with Arreola coming off his own loss to Tomasz Adamek.
Joel Casamayor is still holding out hope of a rematch with the man who took his lineal lightweight championship from him, Juan Manuel Marquez. That makes at least four name fighters — Casamayor, Amir Khan, Robert Guerrero, Michael Katsidis — who want a slice of Marquez next. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that Marquez had trouble getting fights. I guess being “the last Mexican standing” and showing some vulnerability will do that for a fighter everyone used to want to avoid.
(Round and Round sources: ESPN, BoxingScene, FanHouse)
