Samuel Peter's manager Ivaylo Gotzev told Boxingtalk.com, "I guess everyone knows by now that Vitali is making a comeback and there have been many wrong decisions made surrounding this comeback. We personally have nothing against him coming back to the ring and it could make things exciting for the heavyweight division. What upsets us is the WBC willingness to allow him to bypass us after we've done our due dilligence and have paid our sanctioning fees to the WBC twice. We did everything by the rules as required and we have a problem with their positioning of Vitali ahead of Samuel Peter. We welcome this comeback and we welcome fights with both brothers, which I believe will be the rivalry at heavyweight. Fighting Wladimir was quite an experience and we're definitely looking for that rematch. Hopefully that happens after we knock out Klitschko, after Samuel is the champ by defeating Oleg Maskaev. Nobody is going to bypass us. We have a team of attorney's working on this case and it's a slam dunk case as far as we're concerned and anybody involved in making this travesty of a decision is going to get sued."

GL: Some people are going to say the last mandatory was made in August. Isn't the mandatory supposed to be made once a year? On top of that the champion Emeritus title that Klitschko holds would allow them to do this according to their rules, do you really feel you have a strong legal position here?

IG: "That's a situation we're going to leave to the legal experts to determine. Everything is about timing and the way this was presented and the way we lead to believe that there would be nobody standing in our way, that's that reason we paid the sanctioning fees twice. And that was the order of the WBC, to fight James Toney and then get enforced as the mandatory. There are several letters from the WBC stating such and I"m not really worried about it becuase our legal team is going to be all over this case."

GL: What are Samuel's feelings on this situation?

IG: "You should give him a call because he's not going to hold anything back. He's not willing to accept any step aside money. He's worked his whole life to fight for a world title and that's what he wants. The WBC needs to consider how they're changing peoples lives and peoples careers. We're talking about a retired champion, who I have no idea who he defeated to get the status they're giving him. He hasn't fought in two years and now on days notice, we can't allow anyone to bypass us."

GL: What's the latest with Sergei Liakhovich?

IG: "He's been training every day and he's looking really good. His injuries are healing up nicely and he's going to be back better than ever. We're looking to get him back in the ring sometime in April.

M

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