No protest from Peter camp!

October 2, 2006

By Chad Barcus
http://www.fightnews.com/barcus03.htm

As recently reported, the WBC has ordered an immediate rematch between James “Lights Out” Toney (69-5-3, 43 KO’s) and Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter (27-1 22 KO’s). Their September 2 clash ended in a controversial split decision after one of the better heavyweight fights in the last few years.

Even though the first fight was billed as a WBC final eliminator with the winner to become the mandatory challenger for Oleg Maskaev, the WBC ordered Peter and Toney to fight again after a successful protest by Toney's promoter Goossen Tutor. Fightnews contacted Samuel Peter’s manager Ivaylo Gotzev to get a few comments on this development concerning his fighter.

“Are we going to protest? No we are not," said Gotzev. "As a matter of fact, we are all excited. If the money is proper. We are very excited about a rematch. Because, you know, I’m not a hypocrite. When I say I stand behind the best fighters in boxing, I really mean it. We don’t just talk the talk. We walk the walk. I thought it was a great fight the first time around, so why not give the media and boxing analyst what they want? Because they demand a rematch.”

Gotzev also spoke about the possibility of bringing the rematch to Nigeria. When asked where the fight will take place, Gotzev responded, “It doesn’t matter. There is a possibility this time we will take him to Nigeria. We want to know what those judges have to say then. Really, wherever this fight happens, it’s going to happen for the right reason and that is because it was an exciting fight the first time. I’m feeling such bias by the writers. It was a great fight. Two judges saw the fight and gave a huge margin to Samuel Peter, so therefore, they were obviously decent judges. It was a fair decision. Was it a good fight? Who can deny that? Should we do it again? Apparently so. We look forward to it.” Ivaylo continued, “That is a plan. We’ll take him to Nigeria this time. No protest. We’re not protesting…They’ve done all the protesting. We’re just going to do the fighting, IN the ring, where it belongs, not outside.”