Looks like the injury to Tiozzo is pretty serious, at his advancing years (although younger than one of the co-challengers) have to ask if he will come back.
A potential avenue for Woods to pick up another belt or for Peter Oboh.
Here's the story from fightnes.
On September 12, 2005, the WBA granted light heavyweight champion Fabrice Tiozzo special permission to defend his title on December 5, 2005 against Paul Murdoch. The special permission granted to the Tiozzo was conditioned upon the winner fighting against the official challenger Silvio Branco in a period of no longer than 90 days. On November 24, 2005, Tiozzo's representatives sent a medical certificate stating that Tiozzo was injured and could not fight on December 5. By virtue of Tiozzo's unavailability, the WBA ordered an interim title between the #2 rated contender Silvio Branco from Italy and #3 rated contender Manny Siaca from Puerto Rico. Salvatore Cherchi's OPI 2000 hopes to stage this fight in Italy at the end of April.
Branco vs Scaia for WBA interim belt.
True, although by this point Branco, though still dangerous, is far, far past his best...I do recall Ulrich putting him to sleep a little while back, that ought to have put some additional miles on the Italian.viciousmaussa wrote:I think he's just avoiding an unattractive mandatory (Tiozzo), as today's rumours of a nice paying Tiozzo-Erdei unification might suggest. Tiozzo won a very very tough win against Branco tot ake the WBA title, I doubt he wants to look at the guy again.