Tommy Langford: record, next fight and profile →
Those fight mad Mexicans craze nothing better than a fistic fiesta to brighten up their national Cinco de Mayo holiday and this year they’re treated to a tasty looking catchweight civil war between the nation’s two most popular active fighters.
Avtandil Khurtsidze (33-2-2, 22 KOs) captured the interim version of the WBO middleweight title this past weekend in England by stopping Tommy Langford in five rounds. After a slow start Khurtsidze uncorked a left hand that sent Langford down in the fifth, where the fight was then waved off by referee Phil Edwards.
Leicester Arena, Leicester, Leicestershire, United Kingdom - In a WBO middleweight eliminator, with the interim-WBO title at stake, Avtandil Khurtsidze (33-2-2, 22 KOs) stopped previously undefeated Tommy Langford (18-1, 6 KOs) in the fifth round to earn a crack at WBO full champion Billy Joe Saunders.
It might be wise to avoid mentioning to Tommy Langford that he’s fighting for a 'diluted' version of the world middleweight title when he fronts up to heavily avoided Georgian Avtandil Khurtsidze for the vacant WBO interim strap at Leicester Arena on Saturday week, writes Glynn Evans. The reigning British and WBO Inter-Continental king, now unbeaten in 18, claims he’s been left to mop up WBO regular champ Billy Joe Saunders’ dirty mess.
Baggies bomber Tommy Langford is hoping a victory over Avtandil Khurtsidze for the WBO Interim Middleweight Title will secure an all-British showdown with World Champion Billy Joe Saunders. On Saturday night the unbeaten British Champion headlines the Leicester Arena, with a full undercard in support featuring Anthony Yarde, Tyrone Nurse, Daniel Dubois, Lyon Woodstock Jr and more.
We last week set the ball rolling for our Leicester promotion on April 22 and I saw it remarked on social media that it is a card that ‘covers all the bases’. Well, looking at it, it is a show with something for nearly everyone, whatever your fistic preference. Following our inaugural BoxNation/BT Sport blockbuster in Manchester on Saturday week this bumper card features a world, British, English and also a Midlands Area title – so there aren’t too many missing from the championship jigsaw. And there might well be one or two surprises to be added on yet.
Unbeaten British Middleweight Champion Tommy Langford has talked up a possible domestic clash with Billy Joe Saunders, should he win the WBO’s interim belt. On April 22nd, Langford faces hard-hitting Avtandil Khurtsidze at the Leicester Arena in the biggest fight of his life. His opponent is the number one ranked Middleweight with the WBO.
The 114-114 tally submitted by British judge Ian John Lewis following the WBC world title contest between Rey Vargas and Doncaster’s Gavin McDonnell in Hull last weekend does the game over here no favours at all. Admirably, McDonnell and his team took no comfort from being scored all square on Lewis’ card, quickly stating that it was wrong and he clearly lost the fight.
It proved a tight call when Glynn Evans canvassed the cognoscenti to pick a winner between unbeaten welterweight titans Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman who clash for all the 147lb marbles at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on March 4th. BoxNation, of course, shall be screening live.
Birmingham’s Tommy Langford (18-0-0, 6 KOs) will face Brooklyn-based Georgian Avtandil Khurtsidze (32-2-2, 21 KOs) for the WBO Interim World Middleweight Championship at the Leicester Arena on Saturday 22nd April, live on BT Sport and BoxNation.