By Ryan Burton
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum is very high on his unbeaten light heavyweight prospect Oleksandr Gvozdyk (10-0, 8KOs). Arum recently spoke to BoxingScene.com about Gvozdyk and some of the other prospects fighting under the Top Rank promotional banner that he expects to break through in the near future.
The 30-year-old Gvodzyk captured a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games and returns to the ring on July 16th against Robert Berridge (27-4). Arum believes that the Ukrainian is just a few fights away from being a world champion.
The prospect made a statement in April as part of the Pacquiao-Bradley undercard, where he brutally knocked out recent world title challenger Nadjib Mohammedi in two rounds. Mohammedi had unsuccessfully challenged Sergey Kovalev for the IBF/WBO/WBA titles last July.
Here is what Arum had to say about some of his up and coming prospects that have flown under the radar.
"The guy who I think would beat Stevenson today and probably would beat Kovalev in the next six months is Oleksandr Gvodzyk. He is the best light heavyweight I have seen. He is going to be a breakout star," Aurm told BoxingScene.com.
"(Egidijus) Kavaliauskas, the welterweight, is a punching son of a bitch. He is a tough, tough guy. You are going to hear from him. (Alexander) Besputin and Saul Rodriguez, Jose Felix, Jesse Hart, we are loaded with guys who are right there to take the next step and you know the winner of (Jose) Benavidez-(Francisco) Santana is going to be right there. In this new amateur crop that will be coming out this year we hope to get some really good fighters but you know that will take 3-4 years for them to develop."
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