Don King, on Mike Tyson


"Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter?
He went to prison, not to Princeton."



"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music
and the dancers hit each other."

Monday, June 11, 2018

Avtandil Khurtsidze is taken into custody in New York.



Who says the 'MOB' is not in and around Boxing?

US-detained mafioso boxer Avtandil Khurtsidze refused bail

US-detained mafioso boxer Avtandil Khurtsidze refused bail

Avtandil Khurtsidze Faces 40 Years, Racketeeing Trial Begins

Last year, middleweight contender Avtandil Khurtsidze (33-2-2, 22 KOs) was on the verge of a mandatory world title shot, when he knocked out Tommy Langford in April to secure a crack at WBO world champion Billy Joe Saunders.

But before he was able to get his hands on Saunders, the hard punching Khurtsidze, 39-years-old, was arrested as a part of a RICO prosecution - with allegations that he worked as an "enforcer" to Brooklyn mob boss Razhden Shulaya.

On Monday, the boxer's racketeering trial began.


press conference-0008 [khurtsidze] (720x480)

Khurtsidze has been in federal lockup since his arrest and faces as a much as 40 years if convicted.
“Shulaya acted as the boss and Khurtsidze acted as his solider,” prosecutor Andrew Thomas told the jury, according to the New York Post.

Khurtsidze’s lawyer, Megan Benett, said the two men knew each other from their days in post-Soviet Georgia and that they “socialized together” — but they were not associates in a criminal organization.
But the video evidence may create some issues for Khurtsidze.

The prosecutors indicated to the jury, that several videos in their possession will show the boxer threatening or assaulting people on behalf of Shulaya.

In one video, as BoxingScene.com reported last year, Khurtsidze is seen punching a man directly in the face after he is accused of stealing money from a Brighton Beach poker ring Shulaya allegedly ran. Shulaya then slaps to the man’s face and tell him he had better pay up or suffer the consequences.

“You will hear threat after threat after threat,” Thomas said of Khurtsidze.

The organization, which Khurtsidze is alleged to have been a part of, is being accused of running several illegal operations - including the buying and selling untaxed cigarettes, running an illegal poker ring that cheated its players and hacking the code on slot machine software so that members of the organization could rig the winnings.

Tags: Avtandil Khurtsidze   


Source: https://en.crimerussia.com/criminalauthorities/future-wbo-champion-arrested-for-relationship-with-razhden-pitersky-ocg/

The Georgian Tornado was rousted last summer (not long before he was scheduled to face Billy Joe Saunders) along with a few dozen others suspected of Russian mafia connections, and has been incarcerated ever since. As of the latest updates, circa end of the year to roughly a month ago, he was still awaiting trial. Info has been hard to come by through either Russian or English language sources. Do we know what the minimum sentences he's facing might be? Would they effectively spell the end of his career (he's already 38, so while he was aging like fine wine in the ring you've got to figure anything more than 5 years behind steel bars means he's done for).

I know he sounded pretty confident in an interview a few months ago that he would be exonerated. He maintains his innocence of the charges (of being an enforcer and beating up the mob's debtors) even though he admits to being friends with some of the criminal element.
 
Khurtsidze, 38, is charged with conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Each felony charge carries up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Khurtsidze (33-2-2, 22 KOs) won a vacant interim middleweight belt by knocking out Tommy Langford in the fifth round on April 22 in Leicester, England. That set the stage for the mandatory bout with England's Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs), who was ringside.

Now Saunders is waiting for the WBO to determine the mandatory challenger, leaving him in limbo and not fighting on July 8.
 




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