Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

Mourad Aliev vs Labinot Xhoxaj

Battle of two undefeated heavies for the EU title, in Zagreb, Croatia.

Aliev 13-0 (10), Xhoxaj 20-0 (16)

Xhoxaj coming of the big upset of Zakhozhyi.

 

Never seen Xhoxaj, any good?

 

That'd be my ideal scenario as well. Just scratch the May 3rd bout and have Jack replace Squeo on June 8th. That would put all four of the major titles and The Ring in the hands of two men and make the already tantalizing Opetaia-Ramirez fight even more appealing.

Sadly though, it seems like the more likely replacement is Noel Mikaelyan, which is kinda funny in a way that only boxing can be. Jack is only the WBC champion right now because Mikaelyan got stripped for not being able to fight Rozicki, so that alone makes the proposition of an immediate fight between the two because Jack couldn't fight Rozicki funny. In addition to that though, this would be a fight between two guys who haven't even fought since their respective wins of the title in 2023. One would be coming off of two years of inactivity and the other a year and a half. So... I guess no one has a ring rust advantage, at least

And here I was thinking nothing could top the IBF stripping Opetaia for what basically amounted to being too active when Briedis couldn't fight, only to then eventually have to order Opetaia-Briedis for the vacant title

 

Not in any technical sense, but he tough, free-swinging and fun to watch. He was a former cruiser, and they brought him in to lose to the Zakhozhyi, but he gutted it out and won a mutliple-knockdown see-saw brawl against the much bigger Ukrainian.

 

It’s in Turki’s best interests to get the unification fight done asap. It’s the only way Opetaia goes up to HW and if that is Turki’s bread and butter then it makes sense to have Operaia in that mix.

But Opetaia wants all the straps at CW first.

 

Rozicki is injured. His fight with Badou Jack is off.

 

Adeleye-Tshikeva rematch ordered.

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Probably the fair move, but not a fight most folks will be chomping at the bit to see again. But hey, every fight card needs one designated break fight, this'll do fine as that at least

 

Should of been a no contest

 

I saw someone say the fairest thing to do would be to reprimand the referee, overturn the result to a no contest, and most importantly, order them to never rematch

 

I'm in, the match sucked, the ref sucked, and the result sucked.

I know the word incompetent is thrown around pretty liberaly at times, but that ref was doing a **** poor job and ended up costing that TVK guy the match and brain damage AND he didn't own up to his mistake

 

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Not sure what to make of this. This fight is now booked twice...May 23 and June 7.

 

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Gevor was stripped of his belt due to being unable to defend against Rozicki. Badou Jack, for some magical reason is given the belt back. Now after Rozicki who is the one unable to fight for the title, Gevor is now next in line for the belt. What a conundrum the belt has been.

 

Damn may as well book the trilogy on July 1st while they are at it