Yesterday promoter Lou DiBella told boxingscene.com that HBO would not be interested in a WBC welterweight championship fight between unbeaten champions Andre Berto and Selcuk Aydin, which was ordered by the WBC.
Aydin’s promoter, Ahmet Öner of Arena Box had plenty to say on the subject.
“I talked to HBO and I heard that DiBella doesn’t want Berto to face Aydin and is working on other opponents. But in boxing you can’t always get what you want. We are talking about a mandatory fight here. The WBC has ordered the fight and the reigning and defending champion should respect this decision.
“Of course, I understand that as a promoter DiBella is looking to protect his fighter and give him an easy win against an opponent with a good reputation. But this is not a problem of HBO being interested in the fight or not. It’s not my problem that Berto isn’t big enough of a star in the US that the general interest in his fights depends on the opponents. If Berto alone isn’t interesting enough for HBO we can easily do the fight in Turkey. Nobody cares about Berto there but TV and fans care enough about Selcuk Aydin to pay good money for the fight.
“We can make an offer to Berto and DiBella today to fight in Trabzon which guarantees him probably more money than he’ll ever get from HBO. The WBC is not called World Boxing Council for nothing. There is no rule that championship fights including US fighters have to be in America."
DiBella also said that Aydin "didn’t do any favors for himself" with his performance against "Jo-Jo Dan" in June; a fight Aydin won by split decision.
"If DiBella thinks that Selcuk is that easy to beat he shouldn’t be worrying about the mandatory fight but just take it, win and go on from there,” Öner states. “And regarding the ‘controversy’ of Selcuk’s win over Jo-Jo Dan; yes, it was a close fight and we were on the lucky end. But that’s just the way it goes. You win some, you lose some.
“I know a lot of people who didn’t see Berto winning against Collazo but still he got the decison. And I’m not complaining about him being an unworthy champion or lousy opponent for my fighter.
“Selcuk is a warrior. He wants to prove that he is real. He has worked his way through the division beating Said Ouali, Jackon Bonsu and Jo-Jo Dan in three consecutive elimination bouts. Why not give him a chance?
“Instead, they are discussing names like Kotelnik who is not even in the same division... a guy who has always fought at 140 and lost his last two should be a better – and more credible – choice than the unbeaten mandatory challenger? Are you kidding me?"
