Baysangurov vs. Konecny in Play for Oct. 27 in Kiev

By Alexey Sukachev, Dmitry Mikhalchuk, Per Ake Persson

The long-awaited collision between the WBO light middleweight titleholder Zaurbek Baysangurov (27-1, 20 KOs) and WBO interim titleholder Lukas Konecny (48-3, 23 KOs) of the Czech Republic will finally be conducted at Kiev Palace of Sports on October 27 under K2 promotion.

Negotiations between both parties were tense and lengthy. At least, two purse bids (on June 4 in San Juan, Puerto-Rico, and on June 11 in Budapest, Hungary) were first scheduled, then re-scheduled and later cancelled for good. At the end, both K2 and Ulf Steinforth’s SES Boxing reached an agreement for the fight to take place in Zaurbek’s second Homeland, as he is originally from the Chechen Republic.

Baysangurov, who acquired his then-paper belt in a complete mismatch against Brazilian no-hoper Mike Miranda defended it in May against much more capable Frenchman Michel Soro in a fan-friendly thriller to claim more legitimacy. Konecny, who pushed Sergey Dzinziruk to the limit back in 2008, acquired his version of the title by stopping Salim Larby, also from France, in April.

On the sad side of the deal is the death of the Czech’s father earlier this week. Lukas will be even more motivated to upset the “regular” champion than usually. And he has a nice chance to do so, as Zaurbek didn’t look exceptionally well in his latest outings.

Expect fireworks here too.