By Alexey Sukachev

According to Andrey Ryabinskiy, head of the “World of Boxing” promotional company, one of his stellar protégé’s Grigoriy Drozd is forced to withdraw from his scheduled mandatory defense against rugged RSA-based Congolese Ilunga Makabu. The fight is being shifted to a later date.

“Grisha got injured (in camp), so the fight is shifting further to a new date," said Ryabinskiy to TASS media agency. “We have an opponent [Makabu], and the contract is signed. He [the opponent] is our mandatory challenger. We are in constant contact with the other party, they are okay with this situation”.

TBRB #4 rated Russian Grigoriy Drozd (40-1, 28 KOs), 36, is the WBC cruiserweight champion, a title he acquired with a convincing unanimous decision over Krzysztof Wlodarczyk the last May. He then defended it once, stopping another Pole Lukasz Janik in nine this May.

TBRB #10 Ilunga Makabu (19-1, 18 KOs) has been on a roll ever since his TKO loss in a debut fight. The only fighter to go distance with him is a rugged Ukrainian Dmytro Kucher, and he is 5-0, 5 KOs after that, including a a stoppage win over slick South African stylist Thabiso Mchunu in the WBC final eliminator. Makabu’s fight against Drozd was scheduled for November in Russia.