By Dan Ambrose: Number #2 ranked WBC welterweight contender Selcuk Aydin (20-0, 15 KO’s) has been trying to get a fight against World Boxing Council welterweight champion Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KO’s) for ages now without any luck. But now the WBC is saying that Aydin the vacant WBC Silver welterweight champion, will be Berto’s next opponent. For some reason, Berto has been reluctant to take this fight and has preferred to face obscure fighters like Freddy Hernandez, Carlos Quintana or smaller fighters from the light welterweight division like Juan Urango and Steve Forbes.

Berto recently defeated Hernandez by a 1st round knockout on November 27th. However, it’s looking like Berto will have to face Aydin now or risk having his title stripped from him by the WBC. This is good news because many boxing fans have tired of waiting for Berto to finally face someone with halfway decent skills or power. Aydin isn’t all that skilled, but he does have good power and might have a chance to make it interesting against Berto.

In a press release sent out today, Aydin said “I blame Berto for making me wait for this fight for one and half years. He did all he could to avoid me and I will make him pay for that once we meet in the ring. I heard the WBC will call for purse bids shortly and my promoter Ahmet Oner told me that the fight will take place before March 31st. I will fight him anywhere anytime. And I will strip the belt from him.”

Aydin punches hard with both hands and is dangerous on the inside. The knock on Aydin is that he hasn’t really fought anyone, and the one decent opponent that he did fight, Ionut Dan Ion, Aydin barely beat by a 12 round split decision in June of this year. However, Berto struggled in a fight against Luis Collazo, beating him by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision last year in January 2009. Berto hasn’t been eager to mix it up with Collazo again since that fight.