After conquering Ryosuke Iwasa in a career breakout performance in June, Lee Haskins has now upped the ante by accepting to face Randy Caballero for the IBF Bantamweight title. The date and location of the US encounter is yet to be finalized, but the terms have at least been agreed with Golden Boy Promotions.
Southpaw Haskins is already back in training and feeling very confident about his chances.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge of boxing in America and I know this is a fight I can win,” Haskins told Boxing News. “British fighters like James DeGale, Kell Brook and Amir Khan have proved that you can beat top American fighters stateside and I look forward to adding myself to that exclusive list.
“After my last performance over Iwasa, who a lot of people said would beat me, I think the sky’s the limit. Caballero is coming off an injury and 12 months of inactivity, against me that is a big mistake. Now I just want to have that date and venue finalized so I can focus 100% on beating Caballero.”
Haskins’ manager Chris Sanigar is also excited about his fighter’s chance to perform on a big stage and gain significant exposure.
“We are happy to secure the IBF world title fight for Lee and to box in the USA is a great opportunity for him,” Sanigar said. “We made it clear to Golden Boy Promotions that Haskins is willing to travel to the USA giving Caballero home advantage but we wanted a neutral venue away from Caballero’s hometown of Indio, California.
“We are only prepared for Haskins to box in the USA if it’s on a major promotion in a major city to give the fight the profile it deserves otherwise we can go to purse bids and we’ll bid for the fight to be staged in the UK.”
How do you see Lee Haskins’ chances in this one, folks? Is he still an underdog in your eyes?
Mark Phillips is the Head Staff Writer/Assistant Editor at BoxingBase.com, and provides worldwide news, coverage and analysis – he can be reached via our Contact Page.
