Petrov's Promoter Will Push For Linares Mandatory Shot
Oct 3, 2016 • 4:55 PM ET
By Steve Kim
This past Friday night at the Fantasy Springs Casino, Petr Petrov (38-4-2, 19KOs) stopped Michael Perez in six rounds in what was a WBA eliminator. With the victory, Petrov is now the mandatory challenger to their lightweight belt-holder, Jorge Linares (41-3, 27KOs).
On September 24th in Manchester, England, Linares took the title from Anthony Crolla. It turns out that Crolla has a rematch clause. The plan is for them to meet again in the spring of 2017.
Petrov's promoter, Artie Pelullo said ringside on Friday - "The WBA ordered this as the mandatory and that the winner would fight the winner of Crolla-Linares, next. So we'll go and push for that fight instead of waiting for them to do their rematch, which was in the contract that they have but wasn't ordered by the WBA.
"So we're going to go forward and try to push for the fight for the world title."
Regardless, Pelullo aims to keep his fighter active, regardless of the circumstance.
"We don't want him to sit, he doesn't want to sit, He says he's ready to fight tomorrow. So he wants to keep fighting."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
