153 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Tamas Pradarics byline.
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Julius Indongo is scheduled to have far and away the biggest fight in his career on August 19th when he takes on P4P top-5 rated Terence Crawford at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. These two pugilists are the only reigning titleholders at the super lightweight division today.
WBA/IBF/IBO unified champion Julius Indongo (22-0, 11 KO’s) is preparing for the biggest challenge of his boxing career. After dispatching previously unbeaten Eduard Troyanovsky in Russia and outclassing three-division champion Ricky Burns in Scotland, the Namibian pugilist is now planning to travel to the United States to face WBC/WBO/Lineal champion Terence Crawford (31-0, 22 KO’s).
Fingers were crossed for undefeated middleweight prospect Walter Kautondokwa and his trainer/manager/promoter Nestor Tobias in the last couple of weeks as the Namibian team were on the run to secure a September world title bout against WBO champ Billy Joe Saunders. The Brit was originally scheduled to face WBO interim titlist Avtandil Khurtsidze before the Georgian fighter’s unexpected incarceration by police last month. Most of the highly ranked contenders by the Puerto Rican-based sanctioning body were not interested in facing Saunders. That gave less celebrated pugilists a chance to gets picked by Billy Joe’s promoter, Frank Warren for the September 16 date.
The line-up of the cruiserweight version of the World Boxing Super Series tournament looked really nice on paper but turned into a can’t miss show last Saturday with the announcement of the signing of WBO titlist Oleksandr Usyk (12-0, 10 KO’s).
The boxing world is already pumped for arguably the most important real super fight that takes place between Saul Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin on September 16 in Las Vegas. The get-go is on for the WBC/WBA/IBF/IBO/Ring/Lineal middleweight titles. The only missing link is the WBO strap that belongs to unbeaten Billy Joe Saunders.
Hard hitting prospect Walter Kautondokwa (15-0, 14 KO’s) successfully defended his WBO Africa title by a fourth round technical knockout on Friday late evening in Ghana. The card was delayed for almost four hours due to heavy rainfalls at the opened Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra.
Former amateur standout Balazs Bacskai (1-0) made his highly anticipated professional debut a successful one as he won a clean ten-round decision over former amateur teammate Norbert Harcsa (8-1, 1 KO’s) on Saturday night in Hungary. Harcsa chose to trade with his psychically stronger counterpart in order to wear Bacskai down to the later rounds in front of a jam-packed arena of spectators in Budakalasz.
Former amateur European Champion and Junior World Championships gold medalist Balazs Bacskai is having his professional debut on June 10 in Hungary. The sold-out show at the Sporthall in the city of Budakalasz is going to give the fans a historic main event: this will be the first time a boxer is fighting for a Hungarian Title on his first pro night.
In the last couple of weeks, a lot has happened in the light flyweight division. We have witnessed how Japan owned the 108-pound category after challenger Ken Shiro unseated Mexican Ganigan Lopez for the WBC title on Saturday, May 20. On Sunday, Milan Melindo shockingly stopped former three division king Akira Yaegashi in the first round to get the IBF strap. With the win, the Filipino Melindo also punctuated an end to a short-lived, all-inclusive Japanese domination at 108 pounds.
It seems the possibility of a Terence Crawford vs Julius Indongo junior-welterweight super fight has got a second wind. The idea of such a match-up was born in the minds of boxing fans when IBF/IBO 140-pound champ Indongo (21-0, 8 KO’s) travelled to Glasgow, Scotland to unifiy with WBA titlist Ricky Burns (41-6-1, 14 KO’s) this last April.