A beforehand agreed-upon struggle between Israil Madrimov and Magomed Kurbanov lastly has a house.
The WBA-sanctioned 154-pound title struggle has been added to the March 8 ‘Knockout Chaos’ present in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, occasion handlers confirmed Thursday. The struggle will serve in assist of the Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou heavyweight conflict and is now considered one of two title fights on the cardboard.
Each camps have been led to consider the struggle might be for the WBA 154-pound title. The present claimant is Jermell Charlo (35-2-1, 19 knockouts), The Ring champ who was beforehand the undisputed champion earlier than he relinquished the WBC, IBF and WBO belts.
Uzbekistan’s Madrimov (9-0-1, 6 KOs; No. 6 at 154 by The Ring) filed a petition with the WBA to implement his overdue obligatory title shot. The transfer pressured the struggle versus Russia’s Kurbanov (25-0, 13 KOs) to be positioned on maintain till that matter was resolved. WBA representatives haven’t but responded to a number of inquiries left by The Ring looking for clarification or remark.
The occasion’s different sanctioning physique title struggle pits WBC featherweight beltholder Rey Vargas (36-1, 22 KOs; No. 3 at 126 by The Ring) versus England’s Nick Ball (19-0, 11 KOs; No. 10 at 126). The present additionally options an interim WBO heavyweight title struggle between present claimant Zhilei ‘Huge Bang’ Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs; No. 3 at heavyweight) and former full WBO titlist Joseph Parker (34-3, 23 KOs; No. 4 at heavyweight).
Charlo was relieved of his WBO and IBF title defenses for failure to defend versus his named obligatory challengers and was just lately downgraded to ‘Champion in Recess’ by the WBC.
Madrimov has been the obligatory challenger for greater than a yr. An effort to safe keep busy fights has solely produced one such contest—a ten-round win over Houston’s Raphael Igbokwe final April 8 at Boeing Heart at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas. Madrimov was beforehand in talks to face England’s JJ Metcalf, whose group finally declined the chance for a focused Jan. 27 struggle.
Only one struggle got here of his 2022 marketing campaign as properly, a technical draw versus Michel Soro (35-4-2, 24 KOs) after simply two rounds. Their July 2022 assembly occurred seven months following Madrimov’s controversial ninth-round stoppage of Soro, The Ring’s No. 8 contender, of their December 2021 title eliminator in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Madrimov was spared a trilogy conflict when Soro dropped a extremely questionable cut up resolution to Kurbanov final Might 6 in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Kurbanov additionally has resolution wins over former titlists Patrick Teixeira (33-4, 24 KOs) and Liam Smith (33-4-1, 20 KOs; No. 9 at 160 by The Ring).
Ought to the WBA make its full belt accessible, it’s going to formally mark Charlo’s final tie to a bodily sanctioning physique title. He stays The Ring champion however by no means made a single undisputed title protection following his Might 2022 knockout win over Argentina’s Brian Castaño.
Jake Donovan is a senior author for The Ring and vp of the Boxing Writers Affiliation of America. X (previously Twitter): @JakeNDaBox
