Heavyweight Junior Fa surprised the boxing world in recent days when he abruptly announced his retirement, thus withdrawing from his scheduled bout on May 25 against Arslanbek Makhmudov. IBF #12, WBC #14 rated Makhmudov will now face Miljan Rovcanin (27-3, 18 KOs) on the big Eye of the Tiger card at the Gervais Auto Centre in Shawinigan, Québec, Canada. Rovcanin is the main sparring partner for Filip Hrgovic.
“Rovcanin is a good veteran who combines size and punching power. The only defeats he suffered were at the hands of the American super prospect, Jared Anderson, and the only man to defeat Arslanbek, Agit Kabayel,” said Makhmudov’s trainer Marc Ramsay.
In addition to Makhmudov-Rovcanin, the main event will feature WBC #2, WBA #2, IBF #3, WBO #4 super middleweight Christian ‘Solide’ Mbilli (26-0, 22 KOs) against Mark Heffron (30-3-1, 24 KOs). ESPN+ will televise.
Makhmudov got exposed in his last fight.
Reportedly he got injured at the start of that fight.
That beating he took to the body was brutal. Even I was cringing from the body shots Kabayel hit him with.
Makhmudov suffered a fractured right hand in the second round of his last fight.
Didn’t quite know what to make of Makhmudov before the Kabayel fight, know even less now. They’ll go about rebuilding him now, but he’s 35 years old in about a month so I expect him to be back in with someone pretty good fairly quickly.
What about a rematch with Kabayel, just with the condition of not touching the bread basket?
Kabayel has Frank Sanchez next. Maybe if he loses that he could rematch Makhmudov? It’s a big step given the guys he’s been in with, but I was actually thinking Top Rank might use Makhmudov as an opponent for Jalolov.
Kabayel vs. Sanchez is an excellent matchup. Can’t wait to see it!