Adviser: Khurtsidze-Saunders a Must if Canelo-Chavez Gets Made
By Keith Idec
Avtandil Khurtsidze and his handlers hope the WBO does the right thing – the only thing, in their estimation – by granting him a deserved shot at middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders if a Canelo Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight gets made.
Negotiations are ongoing between representatives for those Mexican stars to square off in a May 6 pay-per-view showdown, which would eliminate Alvarez from a potential fight for Saunders’ WBO 160-pound title. The WBO installed Alvarez as Saunders’ mandatory challenger, ahead of the No. 1-ranked Khurtsidze, last month because, according to the WBO championship committee, “it’s in the best interest of boxing.”
The 37-year-old Khurtsidze’s representatives didn’t file the available appeal of the WBO’s mandatory decision in hopes that a high-profile fight between Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs), who owns the WBO 154-pound title, and Chavez (50-2-1, 32 KOs, 1 NC) will get made and enable Khurtsidze to challenge Saunders.
“Khurtsidze has waited patiently for the last nine months for his title shot,” Keith Connolly, Khurtsidze’s adviser, told BoxingScene.com. “If Canelo decides that he wants to fight Chavez Jr., we feel like there is no way the WBO could deny him his rightful opportunity to challenge Saunders for the title. We are expecting the WBO to do the right thing. We will wait to see what materializes with the Canelo fight and then will take the necessary steps to ensure our fighter is treated fairly by the sanctioning organization.”
If Alvarez fights Saunders next, Khurtsidze would be forced to wait even longer for the title shot he thought he’d receive once the WBO elevated him to the top spot in its middleweight rankings in March. Khurtsidze (32-2-2, 21 KOs), a Brooklyn-based native of the Republic of Georgia, hasn’t fought since he beat then-undefeated American Antoine Douglas (19-1-1, 13 KOs) by 10th-round technical knockout March 5 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
“I was under the impression that knocking out Douglas would have put me in title contention immediately,” Khurtsidze told BoxingScene.com through a translator. “I didn’t even think it was possible for an active fighter like myself to not have the opportunity to improve my competition. I’m not the type of guy who’s looking for easy fights.”
Saunders’ mandatory defense is overdue. The British southpaw successfully defended his WBO 160-pound championship December 3, when he won a unanimous decision against Russia’s Artur Akavov (16-2, 7 KOs) in Paisley, Scotland.
The 27-year-old Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) admitted after beating Akavov, then the WBO’s 10th-ranked contender, that he performed poorly in his first fight in nearly a year. He hadn’t boxed since winning the title from Irishman Andy Lee (34-3-1, 24 KOs) by majority decision in December 2015 in Manchester, England.
When asked if he is confident he’ll be Saunders’ next opponent if Alvarez instead faces Chavez, Khurtsidze said, “You can’t be confident about anything in boxing. There are too many conflicting thoughts in the decision-making.
“But it all makes sense. Canelo and Chavez is a great money fight. It’s a marketing masterpiece for the Latino world and should spark great interest everywhere else. It just makes sense.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
