By Yuri Tarantin (Allboxing.ru) and Alexey Sukachev
BoxingScene has recently reported that Italian veteran Silvio Branco (63-11-3, 37 KOs) could have been next in line for WBC #1 rated cruiserweight Rakhim Chakhkiev (17-1, 13 KOs). 2008 Beijing heavyweight gold medalist, who is also rated #5 by the IBF, has recently struck a deal with Andrey Ryabinskiy’s “World of Boxing” promotional team and is penciled to fight next on March 15 in Moscow, Russia. The fight was proposed as the WBC Silver title match-up and probably the WBC 200lb eliminator for a right to take on reigning champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.
However, it looks like it’s not the case now. As Rakhim’s manager Vyacheslav Karakash told Allboxing.ru, his protégé will most probably face rugged Swiss-based / Macedonia-born Albanian Nuri Seferi (34-6, 20 KOs), who returned with a DQ victory over a former champion Steve Herelius the last December.
“We’ve made a very profitable offer to Team Branco but we haven’t got any understandable response from them”, said Karakash. “Given that, we decided to start looking for a new opponent for Rakhim. We’re negotiating with Seferi right now”.
