The former light heavyweight and now cruiser/bridger/heavy Kyrgyz-Russian-Nevadan vagabond returned today, knocking 11-2-1 (11) late sub Dmitry Aleksandrovich "King Kong" Ivanov out cold in the 1st round. No video as of yet (Shamo Boxing was going to maybe stream the card on their YouTube channel, but no dice). This puts him on a 5-0 (4) run in the 44 months since his wide decision loss to Dmitry Bivol down at 175lbs. That remains the hard-hitting and tough Chechen's only world title challenge to date (unless you count the IBO belt, which he captured in 2016 but never defended after defeating Abubaker "Lionheart Bob" Ajisafe). He works the body pretty well for such a tall guy (6′ 3½"), has decent power & chin, and okay fundamentals - but Bivol's blueprint showed how easily he can be neutralized with just a jab and basic movement. What do we think his ceiling is at CW/BrW/HW?
He really needs new management. He's had a few scheduled bouts fall through in the last few years. Just today, he was supposed to face Yury Grigorievich Kashinsky and they were able to scrounge up Ivanov on 24 hours notice. Good that it keeps him busy, but...Ivanov is 43 years old. Last summer he was supposed to face Obinna Mathew and that fell apart day-of, just a waste of training camp. He took all of 2023 off, and fought just once in 2022 after the Bivol loss in late 2021.
He looked good before the Bivol fight. Poor in the Bivol fight, but Bivol has that effect on fighters. Interested to see him step up against a good but non P4P fighter.
Bivol wins every round/almost every round against anyone he faces not named Beterbiev. I remember thinking Gilberto Ramirez was useless when Bivol schooled him. You might be right, but I'd like to see Salamov against someone like Papin, Cieslak, Masternak to find out.
