By Luke Furman
Former two-time world champion cruiserweight Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (50-3-1, 36 KOs) made his long awaited return to the ring as part of a card in Sosnowiec, Poland.
It was the first fight for "El Diabo" since losing his world title to current champion Grigory Drozd of Russia in September 2014. He came into that fight off a lengthy layoff.
Prior to that loss, Wlodarczyk was on a very solid run where he stopped for champion Giacobbe Fragomeni in six rounds in a bout held at the UIC Pavillion in Chicago and traveled over to Russia where he got off the floor to knock out Olympic gold medal winner Rakhim Chakhkiev in eight rounds.
At 34-years-old, he still has time to get a lot of things done.
Wlodarczyk needed only two rounds to blast out gate-keeper Valery Brudov (42-8, 28 KO), who lost three of his last four bouts - including a January decision loss to Noel Gevor in Germany.
Brudov went down in the second round from a series of punches and then his corner threw in the towel as the boxer appeared to be in trouble. A replay showed that Brudov may have injured his right knee when he fell.
Last month his trainer Fedor Lapin said a fight against WBA interim-champion Beibut Shumenov (16-2, 10 KO) is possible for a date in late April. The fight was scheduled to take place last December, but Shumenov withdrew with an injury. Shumenov has been out of the ring since winning a decision over BJ Flores last July in Las Vegas.
"With all my heart I want to get back to the throne of being a world champion," Wlodarczyk said.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org
