John, Caballero Confident!

By Jeff Pamungkas/Carlos Gonzalez
Photo: Jeff Pamungkas

as published in Fightnews.com, January 15, 2008

Facing his third mandatory title fight next January 26 against Panama’s Roinet “Mus” Caballero (22-7-1, 16 KO’s) in Jakarta, Indonesia, WBA featherweight champion Chris “The Dragon” John (40-0-1, 21 KO’s) said to this correspondent that he’s very confident and satisfied with the progress of his training. “Yes, I feel confident, and I feel more and more confident because I will fight in front of my fans in Jakarta,” said John. Since the end of December last year, John and his team have trained in the remote city of Banyuwangi, about 1 hour by speedboat from Bali Island. John is scheduled to leave for Jakarta on January 22 and will stay Jakarta until the fight night.

On the contrary, news from Panama informed that Caballero has trained harder in the last days before January 16, as he had to compensate for the two travel days from Panama to Jakarta. The #1 contender is scheduled to arrive at Jakarta on January 18 at 5.55 PM of Jakarta time. Caballero, as the Panama’s report, is trying to enter the featherweight limit at 126 lbs. when he starts traveling to Indonesia.

Caballero is given big attention by most Panamanian media, because he was chosen as the boxer of the year by the Chiriquí’s province professional boxing commission. The fight itself will be shown live by RCTI TV in Indonesia and will be transmitted to Panama by Channel 4 on Saturday night of Jakarta time. Big channel screen will be located in several places in the public parks and other places in Boquete, Chiriqui Province, where Caballero lives. Same also in Gelam Village, Banjarnegara, the champion’s birth place, a giant TV screen is always installed for the local people to watch their hero fighting to risk his belt.

As quoted by Bola Sports Tabloid, Indonesia’s businessman and boxing promoter, Zaenal Thayeb, will become the promoter of this match, taking over from MTM Promotions (Chris John’s management), while the US referee Raul Caiz, Jr. is assigned as the referee in this bout. 4 rounder heavyweight bout between Mark de Mori (Australia) vs Richard Tutaki (New Zeland) and light middleweight bout between Andres Seran (Indonesia) vs Sam Setu (Autralia) are listed as the undercards.