John Riel Casimero v Paul Butler Rescheduled for April 22
WBO bantamweight champion John “Quadro Alas” Riel Casimero (31-4, 21KOs) will finally defend his title against mandatory challenger Paul “Baby Faced Assassin” Butler (33-2, 15KOs) on April 22 in England. Their fight was originally on schedule for December 11 in Dubai. However, Casimero fell ill and had to withdraw from the fight.
The Filipino champion is coming off a somewhat debatable split decision victory over Guillermo Rigondeaux in August of 2021. Before his decision win against Rigondeaux, he had scored six consecutive knockout victories.
As for Butler, he’s coming off a split decision victory over Willibaldo Garcia in June of 2021. His May 2018 IBF title bout against Emmanuel Rodriguez was supposed to be his first world title opportunity. He lost the privilege to fight for the vacant belt by missing weight. To make things worse, Rodriguez would drop Butler twice twice in round one, and claim a wide unanimous decision over him.
Casimero will no doubt look to be impressive as he hopes to finally face IBF and WBA Super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue at some point in 2022.
Reading Time: 1 minute
By: Jerrell Fletcher
