By Ryan Burton
On October 24th, former IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (20-1-1) bounced back from his first career defeat with a points victory over Aldimar Santos. In May he lost his title via technical decision to Lee Selby.
With all of the featherweight champions besides stablemate Vasyl Lomachenko fighting under Al Haymon's PBC banner, a path to regaining a featherweight title seems very limited for the fighter known as the "Mexican Russian".
Gradovich knows that apart from the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight, in today's boxing climate, fights between Top Rank and Al Haymon don't happen except on rare occasions when ordered by purse bids.
With Gradovich and Lomachenko both managed by Egis Klimas, Gradovich recently stated that he wanted to move down to 122 pounds for an opportunity to fight for a title.
BoxingScene.com recently caught up with the 29-year-old to get an update on his career.
"I want to fight my next fight at maybe 124 pounds to test it out and if I feel as good as I think I will then I will go to 122. There are more options there for me. I don't have as many opportunities at featherweight," said Gradovich.
On Friday Nonito Donaire captured the WBO super bantamweight title with a hard fought victory over Cesar Juarez. Even though Gradovich considers Donaire a friend, he said that he is very interested in that fight. Both fighters had previously trained together in Oxnard, Calif. when Donaire worked with Gradovich's trainer Robert Garcia.
"That would be a big fight. He has a title. He is my friend but in the ring we won't be friends. We can be friends again after. I hope that the fight can be possible in the future," Gradovich stated.
As for when he plans on returning to the ring Gradovich said, "We are still finalizing the date but it should be next year."
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