Aydin wants Berto bout

Welterweight KO-artist Selcuk Aydin is currently training in Miami to prepare for his great goal of dethroning WBC champion Andre Berto. The World Boxing Council (WBC) had confirmed on its 48th world convention in Cancun that Berto has to face silver titlist Aydin next after making his easy defense against Freddy Hernandez on November 27th in Las Vegas.

“I have waited for this chance for a long time”, Aydin told Anson Wainwright (15rounds.com) in an interview last week. “I blame Berto for making me wait for this fight for one and a half years.. He did all he could to avoid me and I will make him pay for that once we meet in the ring. I heard that the WBC will call for purse bid shortly and my promoter Ahmet Öner told me that the fight will take place before March 31st. I will fight him anywhere anytime. And I will strip the belt from him.”

Aydin was not too impressed with Berto’s latest performance although the champion scored a first round tko over Hernandez at the MGM Grand. “Of course, it’s a good win but it didn’t impress me at all”, says Aydin. “I have scored lots of early knockouts. That just happens when you fight stiffs and tomato cans. But being the world champion Berto should face tough opponents. He hasn’t fought anybody as tough as me so far.”

While the WBC has ordered the fight against Aydin, Berto and his promoter Lou DiBella continuosly try to talk themselves into a fight against superstar Manny Pacquiao who is looking for a suitable opponent as long as Floyd Mayweather jr. has to be considered unavailable for what would be the biggest possible fight at the moment.

Selcuk Aydin’s thoughts on this: „I think the whole discussion is sort of ridiculous. Of course, every fighter wants to fight the best and every promoter wants to make the biggest possible money. Still Berto has done nothing to deserve a shot against Pacquiao and he should stop running his mouth. I would be happy and honored to challenge a phantastic fighter like Pacuqiao who I respect. But I know my role and my place and I know that I am not in a position to demand a fight against him. The same counts for Berto. He should stop fantasizing about it and face reality – and the only reality for Andre Berto right now is facing Selcuk Aydin. If he beats me I will shut up and he can go on and fight Pacquaio or whoever he wants. But as long as he’s ducking me I can only say that he should get his game together and fulfil his obligations. I will put him to sleep so he can go on dreaming about Pacquiao when he is in la-la-land.“

Adds promoter Ahmet Öner: „Berto has to fight Selcuk or relinquish his championship belt. It’s as simple as that. We allowed him to take the optional fight against Hernandez. Now Selcuk’s time has come. I will talk to Lou DiBella and if we cannot reach an agreement we will go to purse bid. Selcuk is ready to fight Berto anyplace anytime. If we win the purse bid we might stage the fight in Turkey but we have no problem with fightings in the USA either. We just want the fight to go ahead.“