Yea check out Alessio bisutti, the Italian heavyweight in Thailand, his record has a lot of smaller fighters jumping up to heavy like this.
Two Russian heavies debut against each other April 24, Teymuraz Surov, (presumably David's brother?) and Bekkhan Israilov.
Yes that’s his older brother, this is his first season at Heavy after making it to the semifinals at the national championships 2 years in a row at 91kg.
Depends if he's fighting anyone decent or not... Sparring with domestic level journeymen doesn't suggest he's taking it seriously, but we'll see. He's basically an irrelevance at this point - he's got a hell of a lot to prove, first and foremost whether he even cares to.
Re: Jalolov: He's fighting constipation. He's had it since the 2024 Olympics, meaning that he couldn't progress with his career.
I have a feeling the winner of this will be matched with Gassiev. Itauma is #1 in the WBA, but thus far, it doesn't seem like Moses wants is. Pero is #2, and Miller #9, so it seems like this is a good default #1 contender.
Gassiev is a high risk low reward fight. Beat him and you have beaten a guy who lost to Otto Wallin. Lose to him and your career is derailed. While i admire fighters for taking risks, if i was a manager, i wouldn't see the point of my guy fighting Gassiev. if my fighter beats him, no one will credit him for beating Gassiev. Everyone will say my guy beat a slow one dimensional over the hill fighter. Lose and your career may not recover.
This content is protected Surov moved to an IBA card May 4th. Muslim Gadzhimagomedov back in action as well