By Mark Vester
Following his recent win on last Saturday’s undercard to Paulie Malignaggi-Herman Ngoudjo in Atlantic City, former junior welterweight champion Lovemore Ndou spoke with BoxingScene.com’s Jose Aguirre about his pending rematch with Malignaggi.
Ndou lost his IBF 140-pound title to Malignaggi last June. Pursuant to a clause in their fight contract, Malignaggi owed Ndou an immediate rematch. He allowed Malignaggi to make a mandatory defense of his title against Ngoudjo, but he refuses to wait any longer for what’s owed to him. If Malignaggi does not fight him next, Ndou will initiate a court battle to enforce the rematch clause.
“I'm supposed to fight the winner of the Malignaggi-Ngoudjo fight. The fight is going to happen. Listen, Malignaggi has two choices. Either he fights me in the ring or he fights me in the courtroom. We had a clause in the contract which calls for the rematch,” Ndou said. “We've done a new deal, which was in the bout agreement (for the undercard fight), that I would fight the winner of Malignaggi and Ngoudjo. Like I said, either he fights me or we fight in court. I gave Malignaggi a shot at my title when he wasn't deserving. We had a clause in the contract which called for a rematch. They should have given me an immediate rematch right away. “
Malignaggi is one of the frontrunners to face the returning Ricky Hatton. Should Ndou, who does have a strong case, turns the situation into a legal battle, Malignaggi would stand a chance of being stripped and then lose his shot at fighting Hatton. Regardless of the scenario, it’s unlikely that Hatton would fight Malignaggi without a title around his waist. And it’s a sure bet that Hatton will not postpone his own plans to wait around for the end result of a possible Malignaggi-Nodu legal battle.
There is also little chance of Malignaggi dropping his title to fight Hatton (unless a truckload of cash flew in his direction). Malignaggi and his promoter, Lou DiBella, worked very hard to secure the shot at Ndou. Also, a lot of the hype for Hatton-Malignaggi is centered around the IBF title. Hatton was never beaten for the title, he left it behind to move up in weight for a showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Ndou, who was the mandatory at the time, was appointed the new champion by the IBF. Then Malignaggi beat Ndou, which sets up the storyline for Hatton's return to 140 to win back the title he never lost in the ring.
Ndou tells BoxingScene that he was pestered by a bad referee in his loss to Malignaggi. He feel that a competent ref and a neutral fight location will allow him to win the rematch and regain his title.
“Everyone who saw that fight, saw that I was screwed up. The ref wouldn’t let me fight my fight. Malignaggi got away with a lot of things and I feel that if we fight on neutral ground, I can stop Malignaggi at any time. His first defense should have been against me, but I was good enough to let them do their thing and let him get a chance to make one defense before he fights me, which is fair. Now he has to play it fair. “
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