The WBC cruiserweight champion (up to 90.7 kg) Ilunga Makabu (29-2, 25 KOs) from the DRC will hold the next fight in his native Kinshasa – on September 30 he will fight with the Belgian Riyad Merkhi (30-1, 25 KOs), the owner of the WBA World belt.
Previously, it was assumed that Merhi will defend his title in March in Russia against local Olympic champion Evgeny Tishchenko. But after the full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, all the leading boxing organizations refused to sanction at least some title fights on the territory of the aggressor country.
Merhi is on a co-promotion contract with a Russian company RCC German Titov. And Makabu is a fighter of Don King (Don King Production).
Previously, the WBA forbade unifications to their “regular” champions – only the owners of “super titles”. But in this weight, the WBA Super champion Frenchman of Armenian origin Arsen Gulamiryan has not entered the ring since December 2019, which may be the basis for transferring him to champions on vacation and promoting the Belgian. It’s no secret that King gets along great with WBA President Gilberto Mendoza.
Makabu in January 2022 very controversially defeated Thabiso Mchunu from South Africa in a rematch, and Merhi in July last year in his debut defense of the title prematurely defeated the unknown Zhang Zhaoxin (10-2-1, 6 KOs) from China.
At the beginning of the year, there were rumors that Makabu would fight Canelo Alvarez himself. The African scared the Mexican with a “brutal knockout.” Also, the British big man wants to fight the King champion.
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