Selcuk Aydin

Arena beats Don King to win purse in Mexico

Selcuk ‘Mini Tyson’ Aydin 19-0-0 (15) has the chance to be the second champion in the Arena Box-Promotion stable along with Cuban WBA featherweight champ Yuriorkis Gamboa. Last Friday Arena C.E.O Ahmet Öner won the purse bid, beating rival Don King by just $9000 for the right to host the interim WBC welterweight title bout between Aydin and Luis Collazo 30-4 (15). King’s’s highest offer was $201,000 whereas Arena bid $210,000. Arena now have the right to make the fight within the next 90 days.

“This is a really big chance for Aydin and a very important day for Turkish boxing.” said Öner. “Selcuk has a big chance now to be a World champ. Our plan is to make the fight at the end of May in Istanbul. The details aren’t finalized, but I’m sure this will be a mega event.”

Aydin’s opponent, the battle-hardened New Yorker Luis Collazo (28), is a former WBC welterweight champion (April 2005-April 2006). He has also fought ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley and Andre Berto for the WBC title as well as Ricky Hatton for the WBA version and lost closely all three times on points.

Öner continued “Collazo is a really hard opponent and step up for Selcuk. He has much more experience then Selcuk, but I’m sure with Selcuk’s power, his unbreakable will and the backing from the fans he has a realistic chance of winning the title. I think it was very important for European Boxing to the make the fight here. We have done a great job, now comes Selcuks part.”

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