Ivan Redkach-Yakubu Amidu Battle on ShoBox, 1/9
By Francisco Salazar
Unbeaten lightweight Ivan Redkach will fight Yakubu Amidu in a 10 round bout on January 9.
The bout will headline a DiBella Entertainment card that will take place at the Morongo Casino Resort and Spa in Cabazon, California. In the co-feature, unbeaten junior middleweights Patrick Day and Alantez Fox collide in an eight round bout.
Both bouts, along with the eight round bout between middleweights Ievgen Khytrov and Maurice Louishorne, will air on a "ShoBox: The New Generation" telecast on Showtime.
The Ukrainian-born Redkach (17-0 1 ND, 13 KOs) has not fought since winning a 10 round unanimous decision over Sergey Gulyakevich on June 27.
Redkach resides in Los Angeles, but has traveled to the boxing hotbed of Oxnard in recent months to train at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy.
Originally hailing from Ghana and now residing in Los Angeles, Amidu (21-5-2, 19 KOs) has not fought since losing a seven round split decision to Chris Rudd on February 21. That bout was the quarterfinal round of the Boxcino lightweight tournament.
Amidu was scheduled to fight Anthony Peterson on December 20 in Shelton, Washington. According to Bobby Hitz, Amidu was replaced by Hector Velazquez at the request of Barry Hunter, who trains Peterson.
Day (9-0-1, 5 KOs) won a one-sided six round decision over Felipe Reyes on October 15. The bout on January 9 will be Day's first eight round bout. Fox (13-0-1, 4 KOs) won a six round unanimous decision over Jonathan Garcia on September 20. He has won his last six bouts in a row since fighting to a draw against Frank Galarza in September of 2012.
Khytrov (7-0, 7 KOs) has scored impressive back-to-back first round technical knockouts over Willie Fortune and, most recently, Louis Rose.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Salazar also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing
