Alantez Fox thought he’d get his next potentially career-changing chance October 5.
The veteran middleweight was more than willing to move up to super middleweight for a fight against Ali Akhmedov, a 24-year-old prospect who’s promoted by Gennadiy Golovkin. According to Fox, however, their fight won’t be part of the Golovkin-Sergiy Derevyanchenko undercard October 5 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
“I got a call from my manager [Mike Borao] last week that I was offered a fight against Ali Akhmedov on the Golovkin undercard October 5th,” Fox told BoxingScene.com. “He’s one of the guys Triple-G promotes. Of course, I said ‘Yes.’ Two days later, I was told he didn't want to fight me because I was too tall. Give me a break!”
Fox stands 6-feet-4, three inches taller than Akhmedov. Kazakhstan’s Akhmedov (15-0, 11 KOs) has displayed promise, including a third-round, technical knockout of Marcus McDaniel (15-1, 2 KOs) on the Golovkin-Steve Rolls undercard June 8 at Madison Square Garden.
Fox feels he would provide a much tougher test than New Orleans’ McDaniel produced, or another opponent will offer October 5.
“If you are a co-feature on a Triple-G show, you fight a real fight,” Fox said. “DAZN is paying good money, so they deserve real fighters, not cherry-pickers.”
The 27-year-old Fox (25-1-1, 17 KOs), of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, is 2-0 since suffering his lone loss, a 12-round unanimous decision to Demetrius Andrade (28-0, 17 KOs) in October 2017. He suffered serious arm injuries in that fight that caused an 11-month layoff.
“I’ll fight anyone, even on short notice like this, but I can't get anyone to fight me,” Fox said. “In my only loss against Andrade, I tore my rotator cuff, a ligament in my elbow, and tore my biceps, all in the first round, and fought for 11 rounds that way. It was a fluke injury and it was pain like I never felt before, but I did it. If I didn’t have that devastating injury in the first round, I believe I’d be a champion today.”
Fox is the WBO’s No. 3-ranked contender to Andrade, who won the WBO middleweight title after defeating Fox.
He hopes he gets the type of opportunity versus Akhmedov or another undefeated fighter that his younger brother, Mykal Fox, exploited four months ago. In his last fight, Mykal Fox (20-1, 5 KOs) out-boxed Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (7-1, 4 KOs) and won a unanimous decision in their 10-round match May 11 in Tucson, Arizona.
“My brother just beat an undefeated gold medalist from Uzbekistan,” Fox said, “so I guess I understand why they scared.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.