European welterweight champion, David Avanesyan is hopeful that a victory over Oskari Metz can steer him to a world title shot.
Avanesyan defends his European title for a fifth time against unbeaten, Metz at the SSE Arena on Saturday night, live on BT Sport.
The 33-year-old, who signed with Frank Warren in October, is highly ranked in three of the four governing bodies and insists he is keen to face WBO champion, Terence Crawford as well as unified WBC and IBF titlist, Errol Spence Jr and WBA holder, Yordenis Ugas who fight on April 16 in Texas.
“I want Ugas, [a] world title,” Avanesyan told proboxing-fans.com at Thursday’s press conference.
“Tomorrow if the WBO called me and said fight Crawford, why not? I’m open, I’m ready.
“Spence, I’m WBC number two.
“Now I’m focused on this fight. I hope everything goes well in this fight and me and my team together [are] looking for world titles soon I hope.”
Avanesyan halted Liam Taylor in two rounds in October after a spiteful victory over Josh Kelly last February.
The Russian is ranked at three with the WBC and the governing body reportedly ordered him to fight unbeaten American, Vergil Ortiz Jr although the fight did not materialise and the 23-year-old opted to fight Michael McKinson, before being ruled out of their scheduled clash on Saturday with Rhabdomyolysis.
His trainer Carl Greaves believes a showdown with former unified champion, Keith Thurman would be the breakout fight they’re looking for.
“It’s not frustrating, because we’re getting the fights,” Greaves told proboxing-fans.com.
“I mean obviously, we want a breakout fight now, we want a big fight.
“Obviously, he’s WBC number two, Keith Thurman’s number three, ideally that should be the next fight.
“But will it happen? I don’t know, you know what politics is like in boxing.
“Obviously, Vergil Ortiz was meant to go a different route, but unfortunately he’s come down with an illness so he’s not going to be fighting McKinson now [on] Saturday night, so he might come back and want to fight David, I don’t know.
“But, I do know one thing, this man deserves a world title shot. I mean he’s proved he’s levels above European level and he’s definitely ready for a world title fight.”
Watch the full interview with David Avanesyan and Carl Greaves below:
