Unbeaten world-ranked super middleweight Azizbek Abdugofurov (13-0, 5 KOs) of Uzbekistan will return to the ring on February 28 against an opponent to be announced at a site to be named. Abdugofurov scored a big win over former world champion Dmitrii Chudinov in 2018. He has added a few more wins to his record since then and is now ready for his 2021 fight debut.
Formerly with Queensberry Promotions, free agent Abdugofurov plans to sign with Vladimir Promotions and immediately become active again. This was confirmed by his manager Vikram Swapragasam, who stated, “Aziz was #2 world ranked by the WBC after all the hard work he had done inside and outside the ring. Unfortunately, we could not move forward or maintain that position with Queensberry Promotions. Hence we decided to end the contract and move forward towards the WBC title all over again.”
Decided to check out the record of Abdugofurov, and was surprised to see that one of his opponents, Sirimongkhon Iamthuam of Thailand, had a whopping 94-2 record when that fight took place (Abdugofurov only 4-0 at the time). Iamthuam is a Former world champion who fought the likes of Victor Rabanales, Joichiro Tatsuyoshi, Jesus Chavez, Jesus Sarabia among others. I follow boxing pretty closely. Can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this guy until now.
A couple other Uzbek fighters to watch:
Shohjahon Ergashev: 19-0 17 KOs. Hard puncher who will make for some fun fights at 140/147
Zhanibek Alimkhanuly: Middleweight who is 9-0 5 KOs. A little early to tell, and we won’t really know until he ups the competition level, but he looks to have the skills to be a serious factor at Middleweight before too long.