Selcuk Aydin Could Be Late Year Opponent for Mike Jones

Philadelphia welterweight Mike Jones is going to be on either the Pacquiao vs Marquez (Nov. 12) or Cotto vs Margarito (Dec. 3) pay-per-view late this year, and The RING says that his opponent might be Turkey's Selcuk Aydin.

Aydin (22-0, 17 KO) has been sitting on a WBC welterweight mandatory for a while now, and never could drag former titlist Andre Berto into a fight with him, and the WBC never enforced anything or stripped Berto of his title for not fighting their mandated challenger. It was all a tricky situation, as HBO allegedly had little interest in a Berto vs Aydin fight, but did approve a worse fight between Berto and Freddy Hernandez last November. After Berto lost the belt in April to Victor Ortiz, it appeared briefly that Ortiz might actually fight Aydin, but instead he's fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr on September 17, and I don't think anyone blames him for that.

Aydin first won a WBC eliminator in July 2009 when he beat Jackson Osei Bonsu (KO-9), and then won the "silver" title with a highly-disputed win at home against Jo Jo Dan in June 2010. Since then, Aydin has chosen to play it safe, beating Dzmitry Lubachkin, whose 18-0 record might have been history's worst 18-0 record, and last weekend, a fighter named Raman Dzekhkanau, who came in 10-2.

Physically speaking, Jones vs Aydin would be a rather hilarious fight to look at. Jones is about six feet tall, a big welterweight, while Aydin is 5'7" with very short arms that beat even Ricky Hatton for T-Rex-itude. As a matchup, it's a decent next step for Jones, who would be favored, and Aydin does usually make for fun fights because he's a pretty fearless guy who comes to fight.