SEVEN months of waiting finally ends for Johnriel Casimero on Sunday (Manila time).
It’s not exactly the fight he wanted, but the Filipino world champion is ready to take it anytime.
Casimero, 30, stakes his World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight title against Duke Micah of Ghana in a 12-round bout at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.
The Casimero-Micah match is one of five world championships featured in the Showtime pay-per-view card headlined by the Jermall Charlo-Sergiy Derevyanchenko fight for the World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight title.
Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs) has been in the U.S. since February, initially holding training camp in Florida before transferring to Las Vegas by March in preparation for the biggest fight of his career against undefeated Naoya Inoue.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, pushing back the supposed April 25 bantamweight showdown to August.
Unfortunately, no fight was made as the 27-year-old Inoue couldn’t get out of Japan for his supposed U.S. debut due to the pandemic.
That left the Casimero camp and Manny Pacquiao Promotions president Sean Gibbons no choice but to look for an opponent elsewhere.
They found a willing one in the 29-year-old Micah, who will be fighting for his first ever world championship.
While Micah represented his country in the 2012 London Olympics, he hasn’t fought any fighter of Casimero’s caliber despite his impressive 24-0 record (19 KOs), making the reigning champion from Ormoc the favorite heading to the bout.
Both fighters easily made the 118-lb. weight during the official weigh-in early Saturday morning. Casimero, who perennially had problems with his weight, came in at 117.8 lbs. while Micah was at 117.2 lbs.