Bobby Hitz, the President of Hitz Boxing and co-promoter of Fres Oquendo, together with Roy Jones, Jr.’s Square Ring Promotions, came out swinging this morning after reading reports that the Manuel Charr vs. Alexander Ustinov bout that is being announced for November 25, 2017 in Germany could be sanctioned for the WBA heavyweight title.
“We have received the personal assurance from Gilberto Mendoza, President of the WBA, that Charr vs. Ustinov will not be for the WBA championship, but rather will be an elimination bout for the right to fight Fres for the title,” Hitz said.
“I’m not sure what bag of goods Malte [Muller-Michaelis] sold Charr’s financial backer, Christian Jaeger, but if Jaeger believed a guy whose testimony in our Federal lawsuit their own lawyers conceded was not credible, I guess he’ll figure out soon enough who he is dealing with,” Hitz continued. “It’s ridiculous if you really think about it. Fres was supposed to fight Briggs for the WBA title in June. Briggs tested dirty and was suspended by the WBA. The WBA resolution anticipated this and provided that if Briggs tested dirty, Fres was to fight Ustinov next.
“There is just no way that after winning in U.S. Federal court and after Briggs tested positive and that fight was canceled due to no fault of Fres, who tested clean, that the WBA would punish Fres and deny him his shot at the title. That Jaeger drank the Kool-Aid that Charr would be fighting Ustinov for the title before Fres’ shot just blows my mind.”
“In fact, just last week, we sued last Briggs and his promoter, the Heavyweight Factory, over the cancellation of Fres’ fight against Briggs,” Hitz said. “We have demonstrated our commitment to Fres and to protecting his legal rights. Mendoza is smart and a lawyer himself. He is not going to expose the WBA over this.”
“In the past two years since winning our Federal lawsuit, between Hitz Boxing and our partner Square Ring, we have promoted well over 20 events and could have promoted a bout for Fres on any one of them, but didn’t because we didn’t want to make Fres ‘unavailable’ and lose his shot. Now that Ustinov and Charr have decided to fight each other and are ‘unavailable,’ we will be petitioning the WBA to designate a new opponent for Fres to fight for the title. We have some things in the works which we hope to announce soon.”
The 44-year-old Oquendo (37-8, 24 KOs) last fought in July 2014, losing a majority decision to then-WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev in Grozny, Chechnya. Team Oquendo sued to enforce a contractual rematch clause and a U.S. federal judge ruled that Oquendo is owed a bout for the WBA “regular” world championship.