By Kamel Messani
Ivaylo Gotzev, manager of the official WBA middleweight challenger Gennady Golovkin, had recently declared in an interview with BoxingScene.com that the talentuous french-camerounese Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam, also co-challenger for the vacant WBA title, is "unable" to fight Gennady on the 31st of July, as he fought Gabriel Weis on the 12th of June.
Team N'Dam read the thereabove mentioned interview and wants to deny these allegations: Hassan is ready to fight Golovkin. N'Dam's manager and trainer Mouss Ouicher wants to clarify the situation and bring further elements :
"By what right does Mr. Gotvez dare to declare that my fighter is not ready to fight Golovkin on the 31st of July ? Contrary to what he said, not only is Hassan is ready to fight Golovkin but he is certain to win the fight. N'Dam is a conscientious professional boxer, training six days a week all year long. We had a six months of preparation during which Hassan made more than 200 rounds of sparring in the last two months. The fight against Gabriel Weis was just a step for the world title. Golovkin and his team are reacting as if he was already champion, but he's just a co-challenger like Hassan. They say they won the bids and therefore have the rights to organize the bout, but theses bids only concerned Golovkin-Mundine, not Golovkin-N'Dam," Ouicher told BoxingScene.com.
"They want to use this as an excuse to determine the date and place of the fight, but if they offer us the same amount of money Mundine had been proposed, I would accept without hesitation. It is true that we had an offer for a fight against Golovkin on the 24th of July in Kazakhstan, but the purse was ridiculous. They won the bids offering 1.2 million dollars which should logically be split equally between both boxers, but apparently they don't see things that way. This attitude does not deserve our sport, how could Golovkin say he is world champion if he beats Milton Numez, who has only fought in his country and is ranked 240th on boxrec???"
"How is it credible? How could Golovkin feel like true a champion? Is there a single boxing fan who would accept this? It is not too late, if they want a real world title fight worthy of the name, they just have to respect the rules. If so, Hassan will be happy to fight and beat Golovkin."
"As a conclusion, we ask Team Golovkin to contact our promoters with a serious offer, and let our boxers fight to see who is the true champion. Enough of this boxing business where the first-ranked boxer chooses to fight the 15th. I hope that after this reaction Mr. Mendoza, President of the WBA, will not allow the regular world championship that I do not find credible between Golovkin and Numez."
Hassan N'dam confirmed he is ready to fight Golovkin and honor the WBA which is the oldest boxing federations in the world "I am physically ready. If the fight does not happen, it is just because of formalities caused by the Golovkin clan," entrusted Hassan N'Dam.
"Concerning the vacant WBO title, it is strange that Daniel Jacob was designated number 1 whereas a few weeks ago he was ranked behind N'Dam. Same for Gennady Martirosyan who is now ranked number 4 despite being badly beaten and KO'd in the 10th round by N'Dam last year. How can you explain this ??? It clearly shows that we are victim of promoters' influence in order to put Hassan aside and avoid a fight against him. I am still waiting for an answer from the president of WBO about this question," declared Mouss Ouicher.
