Headlining an IBA Pro card tomorrow in Türkiye at the Rixos Tersane Istanbul, airing live on DAZN. IBA Pro world super featherweight title at stake, 1st defense of Batyrgaziev after becoming inaugural champion in March. Southpaw vs. southpaw, and nearly identical on tale-of tape (with the Russian incumbent having a half an inch on the British challenger). The onetime Olympic gold medalist from Dagestan is seven years younger than the Scouser. Couple of the downright goofiest and most asinine ring monikers you will ever hear, here.
Probably the biggest professional step up for ALBA since Jonathan Patrick "Jono Carroll" Beresford, another British Isles opponent (and former sparring partner of Jazza), whom Batyrgaziev stopped within 9 rounds.
Weird to see boxrec finally recognize the IBA title, considering they have some sort dispute with them. The situation between boxrec and the WBA/IBA is kinda one of boxing's secret wars at the moment. There is definitely some funny business behind the scenes.
On principle I'm definitely more aligned ideologically with BoxRec (a bunch of transnational boxing nerds putting in countless hours of toil on historical research and providing a free service to all fans basically just for love of the game - technically a for-profit website but again, they don't paywall the database, which is huge) than IBA (long history of corruption and ties with Russian oligarchs, to say nothing of the recent Imane Khelif nonsense) but I've gotta say...knowing when fights are taking place is, uh, less annoying than being kept totally in the dark.
So this is interesting... Batyrgaziev is obviously the more decorated amateur, but Dickens arguably has the better pair of best victories (2-0 versus a teenaged Josh Taylor, plus victories over eventual pro world champs Leigh Wood and Joe Cordina). Batyrgaziev has a better single best win in Cuban legend Lázaro Álvarez, but it was an SD and Albert lost their overall trilogy 1-2.
It's hard to tell which version of Jazza will show up, but even at his best, I don't see how he wins this one. I can see Batygaziev stopping him in impressive fashion in the first half of the fight.
I wouldn't say that, skill wise they're about the same. The people Carroll has lost to, Jazza would as well, probably far more brutally.
Also apparently at stake will be the WBA world "interim" super featherweight title. (the WBA being another organization that, like IBA, is beefing with BoxRec to an extent that none of their belts are listed on the site)
