by Richard Cloutier
 
When asked by BoxingScene.com/Netboxe.com about the saga surrounding the difficulties of organizing a rematch between Antonin Decarie and Souleymane Mbaye, promoter Yvon Michel of GYM was both bitter and disappointed by the recent turn of events in this matter.

Last week, Souleymane Mbaye went to Senegal to get support from the government to organize a fight involving a defense of his interim-WBA world welterweight title. This belt was found around the waist of Mbaye last May, after he had recorded a victory over Decarie at Palais des Sports Marcel Cerdan in Levallois-Perret, France. Concurrently with the move by Mbaye, the WBA, as part of the 89th annual convention held in Nicaragua, has declared the holding of a world title fight between Souleymane Mbaye and the defending champion, Vyacheslav Senchenko (31-0) of Ukraine. According GYM, a rematch clause to Antonin Decarie has to be honored by Souleymane Mbaye.

"It was predictable, the WBA wants to force him to fight against Senchenko. In our agreement, if the WBA mandated a fight against the champion, we could not do anything, as that battle became mandatory. If Mbaye beats Senchenko, then he should face Antonin. I can not wait to see how this fight will go, but I don't have much hope. I do not think he will beat Senchenko. I think he will do badly in this fight," Michel said.

"We could have done it all very quickly and everyone would have won. This is what we had agreed upon with Bernard Roos (Editor's note: the promoter Souleymane Mbaye) is the following. We knew that at the convention the WBA interim champion would be summoned to fight with the champion. So our plan, was that we wanted to do it quickly. To do the fight, and then a rematch. If the result is different the second time, the we go for a trilogy before the order of the WBA. I do not know who failed this plan, whether it was Bernard or it was Mbaye who simply didn't feel like boxing, but by their inactivity it has screwed everything up that we had planned."

What about Bernard Roos now? "I was told he had just done an event or about to make one soon. But I have not heard from him. "

What does the future hold for Antonin Decarie (24-1-0)?

"Antonin will take part in a major battle in February. We're working on it. We can not talk now, but we are certainly still rising in the rankings with Antonin. The goal is a championship, so we're talking about a fight that will position him. But we are at 147-pounds. It is an extremely competitive division, which is also extremely difficult. In February, we'll give him the opportunity. "

In his last appearance in the ring on October 29, Decarie won a difficult victory by majority decision against Irving Garcia (17-5-3). After the battle, his face was swollen and he didn't know about the severity of the injuries he may have suffered.

"We asked Antonin to take a series of examinations. It looked worse than it was. All is well for him. Also in our planning for "Fast and Furious," we thought Antonin would back in December. We thought he would face Victor Lupo, who was replaced by Garcia, but we knew it would be a grueling fight. His trainer Marc Ramsay, on his part is happy because he'll have time to deal exclusively with Antonin. After December 18, Jean Pascal will be in transition and it will allow Marc to spend the holidays with Antonin in order to properly prepare him for this fight.