Frenchman Anthony Riviere, 12-6-1 (2), is looking to settle the score, and to become a champion again, when he fights compatriot Alain Sangue, 14-9-2 (3), in a rubber-match for the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) International Lightweight title on June 7 in his home-town Blagnac.
Riviere defeated Sangue by split decision in a non-title fight in March of last year, and is a former French and IBO Continental champion. But he has been unlucky in his last two championship fights.
Last June he lost a rematch, and his IBO title by split decision to Sangue, and then came up short when he attempted to rebound the following December, dropping a majority decision to Khalil El Hadri in a fight for the EBU Silver title.
Now he gets a chance to set the record straight once and for all against Sangue, and win what would be his third professional title, but Sangue will obviously have other plans.
Born in Cameroon, Sangue (23) is the younger man by four years, and enters his third clash with Riviere with momentum, having won their most recent bout. Before that he had sandwiched the loss to Riviere between victories over Nathan Laib (9-0) and Kodjo Yetongnon (11-5-3).
As previous results show, this is such an evenly matched fight that its anyone’s guess who will emerge as new WBF champion. But its safe to say that both will, again, do everything they can to win.
