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Amir Mansour rumored to be Deontay Wilder’s next foe

Fighters Network
07
Dec
Amir Mansour (right) faces off with Gerald Washington in October 2015.

Amir Mansour (right) faces off with Gerald Washington in October 2015.

There is a search party which has been doing its thing for a good month or more. It wants to find a foe for Deontay Wilder, who will fight someone on Jan. 16 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Wilder, under the Haymon Boxing umbrella and also advised by Shelly Finkel, was figuring he’d fight Czar Glazkov, but that pairing went off the rails. So a Plan B guy needed to be found. Word went out on Saturday that Mr. Plan B was Artur Szpilka, a Polish prizefighter. Not so fast, people close to the deal-making said. Today, Monday, word is out that the muscle-y Amir Mansour might get the gig, which will run on NBC. He’s handled by Hall of Fame promoter Russell Peltz, so I gave Peltz a call to get a confirm or deny.

What about it Russell, will the 43-year-old Mansour, who sports a 22-1-1 (16 knockouts) mark, get the Wilder date?

“I can’t really comment at this time,” he told me.



Mansour, a testament to a superior genetic package with his ability to compete at a world class level at his age, last fought on Oct. 13. He had a draw with Gerald Washington, but might have deserved better on the scorecards.

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