Published
6 years agoon
By
Michael Woods
WBO middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders didn't look like an ace in his last outing, against Artur Akavov on Dec. 3.
If he fights at such a level against No 1 rated Avtandil Khurtsidze (32-2-2; age 37; from Georgia), Khurt's trainer Andre Rozier knows they will be hearing, “The newwwww.”
His only concern, that his kid get his shot in a timely fashion and that Saunders doesn't dilly dally and put off the inevitable, postpone because of an injury, etc.
Khurt is ready to rumble, Rozier told me Thursday. The Brooklyn resident last fought in March, scoring a TKO10 over Antoine Douglas.
Editor/publisher Michael Woods got addicted to boxing in 1990, when Buster Douglas shocked the world with his demolition of the thought to be impregnable Mike Tyson. The Brooklyn-based journalist Woods has covered the sport since then, for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, ESPN New York, RING, and he was editor of TheSweetScience.com from 2007-2015. Woods is also an accomplished blow by blow and color man, having done work for Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, EPIX, and for Facebook Fightnight Live since 2017. He now does work for PROBOX TV, the first truly global boxing network.