by James Slater -A strange twist has been added to the upcoming Andriy Kotelnik-Amir Khan WBA light-welterweight title fight. On Promoter Frank Warren’s own web site, it has been revealed that Warren believes unknown forces are deliberately attempting to ruin the fight scheduled for July 18th at The M.E.N arena in Manchester..
In quite bizarre circumstances, and according to Warren’s son, around twenty posters advertising the fight in the Greater Manchester and Lancashire area have been defaced. With pictures of both the champion and the challenger on the posters, someone has took it upon themselves to place big yellow stickers over the top with the word CANCELLED on them. This has massively angered Warren, to the point where he is sure “someone” is trying to wreck the fight that has already been postponed once due to the champion’s tooth problem.
Also angering Warren is the fact that a few weeks back, there were internet rumours floating around suggesting that Kotelnik had again hurt himself (this time his hand) and that Britain’s John Murray would step in as a late replacement for Khan. This latest thing with the cancelled stickers has really got the promoter’s goat, as his son Francis made clear on the official site of his father.
“We’ve no idea who is responsible [for the poster tampering] but they seem determined to scupper the fight,” Warren Junior said. “There were rumours a few weeks ago on the internet that Kotelnik had a hand injury and was going to be replaced by John Murray. But Kotelnik’s promoter has come out and said there is nothing wrong with his fighter and that he is perfectly healthy.
“We are expecting him to fly in on Saturday. Just in case fans out there are worried the fight won’t take place, I want to reassure them it most certainly will.”
This is a curious story, to say the least. Okay, it’s not exactly huge news or anything like that, but why would these people, whoever they are, try and stop a potential British boxing hero from realising his goal of becoming a world champion? Warren himself may not be too popular in some quarters, but what has Khan done to annoy anyone? Strange indeed.
The web site also reports that Khan, should he win against Kotelnik, will still be looking at a possible defence against British superstar Ricky “Hitman” Hatton in the near future.