Katsidis vs Marquez-Diaz Winner is Ordered By The WBO (original) (raw)

By Rick Reeno

BoxingScene.com spoke with overjoyed boxing agent Sampson Lewkowicz. The last two months have been big for Lewkowicz's stable of fighters. Last month, Sergio Martinez pulled off an upset decision over Kelly Pavlik to capture the WBC/WBO middleweight titles. On Saturday, Lewkowicz was hit with a double-shot of success. WBO interim-lightweight champion Michael Katsidis, a betting underdog, went through previously undefeated Kevin Mitchell in three rounds before an estimated crowd of 20,000 at Upton Park. In Poland, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk won the vacant WBC cruiserweight title win an eight round TKO over Giacobbe Fragomeni.

Katsidis is now in line to fight full WBO champion Juan Manuel Marquez, who faces Juan Diaz in a pay-per-view rematch on July 31 in Las Vegas. WBO president Paco Valcarcel called Lewkowicz on Saturday afternoon to congratulate him on Katsidis' big win over Mitchell [the WBO's number one contender]. Paco said the winner of Marquez-Diaz II must fight Katsidis or face being stripped.

"I am very proud of Michael and Krysztof. I was very confident they would win and now we are looking for the big fights. I received a call from Paco of the WBO and he said the winner of Marquez-Diaz must fight Michael or they will be stripped. If Marquez wins, I hope what Katsidis did to Mitchell will not scare him off," Lewkowicz told BoxingScene.com.