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Golden Boy's Nov. 25 "Boxing After Dark" card on HBO remains up in the air because lightweight titlist Jesus Chavez rejected $225,000 to face mandatory (and interim belt holder) Julio Diaz on that date, even though Chavez risks being stripped of his title.


Chavez


Chavez's withdrawal has left Golden Boy scrambling, although interim featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Marquez is the likely candidate to headline the card in the wake of Saturday's fight with Jimrex Jaca being canceled because of Jaca's visa issues. Junior welterweight contender Demetrius Hopkins probably will fight in the co-feature.

HBO typically wants its "BAD" cards set at least 30 days in advance.

One possibility Golden Boy explored for the main event was to move Hopkins, the nephew of Bernard Hopkins, up to the main event to fight newly crowned titlist Junior Witter of England. However, according to Golden Boy, that plan failed to materialize because Witter is nowhere near weight and is nursing a sore shoulder.

Then Golden Boy tried to match Hopkins with another newly crowned junior welterweight titleholder, Souleymane M'Baye of France, but that quickly went nowhere.

There was even talk of a possible junior featherweight unification fight between recognized champion Israel Vazquez and titleholder Celestino Caballero, who won his belt Oct. 4 in Thailand via fourth-round knockout of Somsak Singchachawan.

Although Caballero co-promoter Warriors Boxing said he could be ready for the fight, the quick turnaround would be too much for Vazquez, who is coming off a brutal 10th-round comeback TKO victory against Jhonny Gonzalez on Sept. 16.