Mairis Briedis promoters Sauerland are interested in making a fight between the Latvian and Richard Riakporhe.
On July 2 the IBF champion will make a rearranged mandatory defence of his title Down Under against Australian Jai Opetaia. Briedis had been rumoured to be moving up to heavyweight and there had also been speculation linking him to a cruiserweight unification against WBO champion Lawrence Okolie.
However, after Riakporhe’s crushing finish over Fabio Turchi at the weekend the Sauerland brothers not only congratulated the Brit on his IBF eliminator win but talked up a bout between him and Briedis via Twitter.
“Congrats @R_Riakporhe… so this was an eliminator for the divisions’ #1 Briedis. We don’t need to wait. Take care of business down under on July in our mandatory and then it’s GAME ON! #BriedisRiakporhe.
Congrats @R_Riakporhe….so this was an eliminator for the divisions #1 Briedis ??….we don’t need to wait. Take care of business down under ??on July 2 in our mandatory and then it’s GAME ON! #BriedisRiakporhe https://t.co/jiuNWICSYs
— Kalle & Nisse Sauerland (@SauerlandBros) June 12, 2022
Minutes after posting that tweet the Sauerlands pressed the matter some more.
…so @R_Riakporhe @boxxer and @SkySportsBoxing are u really for real? Or is it a PR stunt with the eliminator. Nowhere to run…and certainly no place to hide 3 time World Champ, @ringmagazine champ and @WBSuperSeries champ Mairis Briedis. pic.twitter.com/r7PDOnfDGZ
— Kalle & Nisse Sauerland (@SauerlandBros) June 12, 2022
Following Riakporhe’s win on Saturday promoter Ben Shalom talked up his fighter’s chances of becoming a world champion and hoped to secure him a world title fight this year.
In the current IBF world rankings Riakporhe is at number 12 but the undefeated contender will likely move towards the top 5 when their new ratings are published soon.