Shane McGuigan has called on promoter Eddie Hearn to secure a fight against Fabio Turchi for their European cruiserweight champion Chris Billam-Smith.
Turchi, an Italian southpaw, only has one defeat on his record (20-1, 14 KOs) which came against Tommy McCarthy in October 2019. The Northern Irishman then went on to win the vacant European title before losing it in his second defence against Billam-Smith (14-1, 10 KOs). The current champion is now eyeing a slot on the undercard of Conor Benn’s next fight in April where he hopes to make a second defence.
“The Turchi fight is the one that we want,” McGuigan told Boxing Social’s Ryan Elliott.
“We’ve vacated the British title because we had an agreement with the EBU (European Boxing Union) that we were fighting Turchi and defending our title against him. I know there are people trying to make the [Richard] Riakporhe-Turchi fight. It’s down to Eddie for him to secure that for us.
“We’ve given up a British title [and] we could have easily boxed Mikael Lawal [for it]. He’s sparred him multiple times, that would have been an easy fight for Chris and a decent payday at that.
“It was more sentimental for us to continue to hold the European because it gives you a better ranking worldwide. It’s down to them to deliver it.”
Click here to watch the rest of Boxing Social’s interview as McGuigan discusses Ellie Scotney’s world title plans, Canelo, Ryder-Jacobs and more.