…..Tobias pursues title fight for his protégé
WINDHOEK – With the 27th World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Convention set for Las Vegas, Nevada in the USA next month, Namibia’s award-winning boxing promoter Nestor Tobias yesterday vowed to exhaust all possible avenues during the WBO gathering to ensure Tyson Ushona gets his long awaited shot at the world title.
Just a few months ago, Ushona who is currently ranked the No. 2 welterweight in the world by the WBO, was highly mooted to be the next opponent of Philippine boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao, but the fight never materialised despite Ushona being declared the official mandatory challenger for the world title by the WBO as he was ranked No. 1 at the time.
But with Pacquiao being a super champion and one of the world’s renowned pay-per-view (PPV) fighters, a fight against the Namibian remains something farfetched as the likes of Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Juan Marquez and many other PPV boxers only fight attractive and widely known opponents who already have lucrative deals with TV stations that can make their fight an instant sellout.
Despite the uncertainties, Tobias remains unfazed and says the upcoming convention will accord him a great opportunity to narrate the Ushona story to the world and why he deserves a shot at the world title, regardless of his shortcomings in terms of the various lucrative agreements required at that level.
“If a world title fight fails to materialise, we have two other options and that is to either go for the interim world title or otherwise go for the super welterweight title, and I’m confident Tyson will deal with both options. At the convention, I will deliberate on all those options and the WBO has to give us one of those opportunities. I won’t give up until Tyson fights for one of those titles,” said Tobias.
“We have also tried to go for a unification bout but there was no success in that move because all the current champions in the various organisations only target super fights, which means fights against PPV boxers where there’s more money as opposed to fighting an unknown opponent. But all in all, Tyson will fight for a major title very soon,” concluded Tobias.
On his part, Tyson remains cool-headed and said he is more focused on his 4 October international welterweight fight against Dario Pucheta from Argentina, which will be one of the main supporting bouts of the ‘Final Punch To The World Title’ Boxing Bonanza at the Katutura Independence Arena. “As for now, my focus is to win the upcoming fight and then focus on the future. It’s just one fight at a time.”
As for the Katutura bonanza, VIP tickets will cost N$500 and general tickets N$100 at all Computicket outlets.