May 8th in Rzeszów, Poland. 12 rounds @ bridgerweight, in an eliminator for the WBC title. In other words, this is for the right to be first in line to challenge the winner of the inaugural championship mach between Óscar Rivas and Bryant Jennings in June. Różański, by far the lesser known entity domestically or abroad, is four years older at 35 and giving up three inches of height (and two in reach) to Szpilka, but has less wear & tear on his odometer (less than half as many pro bouts and less than a fifth as many rounds boxed) than Szpilka has and might just have the best single victory either of them has notched in the last few years: upsetting Izuogbe Ugonoh for the vacant Republic of Poland heavyweight title in 2019 - depending on how you rate the UD10 against Mariusz Wach that Szpilka managed eight months earlier. Before and since that one bright spot, however, Różański's zero is quite padded and his opposition has been creampuff stuff - highlighted by quickly blitzing the reanimated corpses of Albert Sosnowski and Michael Sprott. That said, the Poles do love them a KO artist (who doesn't? But them especially..) and he is a perfect 13-0 (12), so with The Chin of The Pin ever a concern, there are question marks even with the apparent gulf in class and experience here. Of course, we know Artur can himself crack, so if Łukasz has been harboring glass all will come to light next month. Szpilka's last fight, against Serhiy Alexandrovich Radchenko: This content is protected ...and penultimate, vs. Fabio Tuiach: This content is protected Różański's last fight, versus Özcan Çetinkaya: This content is protected ...and penultimate, against Eriks Kalasnikovs: This content is protected
There was a rumor last week that Różański had been tabbed as Tyson Fury's tuneup opponent this summer, and that Szpilka would face a substitute - but that seems to have not held any water.
This I hadn't heard of, but it's not happening - both are long retired and have no intention of coming back.
Apparently there's been a lot of squawking between these two in the media. Bad blood + glass cannon vs. untested (and unchinchecked) puncher = we could be in for an explosive few rounds.
Only the WBC, thus far. Time will tell if the others acknowledge it anytime soon and begin sanctioning their own belts. The division will face a hard uphill climb for legitimacy if they don't.