Another big Golden Boy Promotions fight wiped out

With Andre Berto’s positive drug test for a banned substance, Golden Boy Promotions are likely losing their second big fight in the past week. Berto was supposed to fight Golden Boy Promotions fighter Victor Ortiz on June 23rd, but fat chance that happens now. Previous to this, Golden Boy Promotions had another fight taken off the table when IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson tested positive for synthetic testosterone for his rematch against Golden Boy fighter Amir Khan. There wasn’t enough time for Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer to find a suitable replacement to step in and fight Khan. As such, the entire May 19th card was cancelled. Not wanting to have that happen a second time, Schaefer is insisting that the June 23rd Ortiz-Berto card will continue with a replacement opponent being sought. Schaefer figures that with a little more than a month to go before that fight date that he should be able to find a good replacement for Berto to face Ortiz. Good luck. The word I’m hearing is there’s essentially no one for Schaefer to pull from to take the fight unless he wants to try and twist the arm of Khan to move up in weight a little early to fight Ortiz. That’s not going to happen. Khan will be fighting on July 7th, and they’re looking at matching him against Erik Morales or Devon Alexander, two fighters with less power than Ortiz. There really isn’t anyone worthy to put in with Ortiz at this time. Schaefer will have to really put some pressure on his own fighters and offer some good money to get one of them to step up and take the fight with a shortened training camp. There are no big names available that worthy of fighting in a main event against Ortiz. Schaefer may not want to cancel the card, but he really should because the opponent that they dig up for Ortiz will likely be someone out of his class and not able to hang.