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“Knezevic Scared Of Another Hiding!” says Manager
“Old cougars hunt best,” smiled newly crowned Austrian superwelterweight champion Gotthard “The Cougar’ Hinteregger and the 39-year-old continues his comeback with an appearance at Vienna’s City Hall on October 28. Hinteregger’s fight will constitute the main attraction of an amateur meeting, but further professional fights could still be added to the bill.
According to manager Olaf Schroeder, a routine 6-rounder is on the agenda. “This is Gotti’s third fight with his new, old trainer Johann Senfter and unbelievable as it sounds, he is still learning new tricks. We want to get in position for another international title fight, the last hurrah so to speak, so its important to keep winning now,” said the head of Fight Production.
Off the cards, at least for now, is a possible Austrian title rematch with Gojko Knezevic, whom Hinteregger, 26-10-1 (14 KO’s), stopped in four rounds last June. Knezevic started furious in that fight, winning the first three rounds, but quit the very moment the cool veteran hit back at him in the fourth. That same night, Knezevic and all his team, including family, screamed for a return and his trainer Edip Sekovic, the former European champion, even announced publicly: “We will offer Hinteregger a super purse for a rematch!”.
“Complete bull,” Hinteregger’s manager Schroeder angrily responds. “I did not hear one single word from them anymore! Sekovic did not offer nothing, much less a “super purse’ and that proves Knezevic doesn’t have the bottle to face Gotti and another hiding again. Instead, Knezevic appears one month later and what happens? He’s getting a gift decision against a pro debutant! Why can’t he just admit that Gotti broke him?”. The 27-year-old Knezevic, however, hasn’t always been as quit as lately. Remember that he idled the formerly world-ranked Hinteregger with the threat to “take his head off” before their clash in June. How times are a-changing…
Hinteregger’s up-coming outing in Vienna will remarkably be sponsored by the Austrian Boxing Federation (FVA). “The FVA’s main objectives are to supervise and further professional boxing in our country,” said president Willibald Palatin, “and when we make profits, like we have done very well recently, it is our duty to re-invest into Austrian boxing, instead of just sitting on the money. We are very happy about what Hinteregger has done for Austrian boxing in the last few years, thus it is with great pleasure that the FVA can pay him back by funding a fight for him at this crucial point in his career.”
