By Alexey Sukachev
According to influential Russian promoter Vladimir Hryunov, his protégé Eduard Troyanovskiy (17-0, 14 KOs) will challenge WBA lightweight champion Richard Abril on March 15 in Moscow, Russia. The show will be promoted by Hryunov’s companion Andrey Ryabinskiy, who has recently created his own promotional brand, announced as “World of Boxing”.
Abril (18-3-1, 8 KOs), 31, who had been wandering in obscurity for six years, came into a spotlight in November 2011 with a gutsy win over Miguel Acosta for the WBA interim title. He then challenged regular champion Brandon Rios (who was overweight hence losing the belt at the scales) only to be held to a highly controversial split decision loss in April 2012. Being then upgraded to a full champion status Abril defended it once against previously undefeated Sharif Bogere of Uganda in March 2013. The Cuban stylist was also penciled to fight Jorge Linares in Japan the last fall but the fight fell through, when Abril suffered an injury to his ankle.
WBA #4 Eduard Troyanovskiy, 33, started his career at 29 in Germany and also fell into virtual obscurity. Racking up 8 wins against non-descript opposition, he then catapulted himself into the continental headlines with an upset TKO 3 victory over world-rated Polish veteran Matt Zegan in December 2010. After a lengthy lay-off, which followed that career-altering success, Troya came back with new power and new promoter in 2012 and was hardly stoppable ever since. The Russian bomber is on a high roll, scoring five consecutive second-round stoppages since December 2012.
March 15 show is currently being gathered and looks to be a sound card. In an already announced co-feature, comebacking cruiserweight powerhouse Grigory Drozd (37-1, 26 KOs) will defend his EBU title against tough journeyman Jeremy Ouanna (14-8, 3 KOs). Also on the card is 2008 Beijing gold medalist Rakhim Chakhkiev (17-1, 13 KOs). Rumors are circulating that either WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev or IBF featherweight titlist Evgueny Gradovich are being pursued for this card as well, but no official confirmation of that is being issued.