The scene is set for one of the most prominent boxing cards of 2022 in Russia. The epithet should be taken with a grain of salt, as local cards are far less pretentious this year than they were before – another sad consequence of an ongoing high-scale military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
With Russian fighters excluded or frozen by several sanctioning bodies and with a limited choice of opponents from either friendly or neutral states (and this list is seriously limited as well), it’s harder than ever to build up a solid card.
German Titov and the RCC Boxing Promotions were able to resolve the problem at least formally by bringing once solid names, who are nevertheless aging and down-sliding with differing speeds.
The show will take place tomorrow (Nov. 19) at the RCC Boxing Academy in Ekaterinburg and will showcase three former titlists against a handful of local prospects. Weights for the upcoming card were scaled today for all nine bouts of the evening:
• Red-haired Mark Urvanov (21-3-1, 10 KOs) takes on former WBA super featherweight champion Rene Alvarado (32-12, 21 KOs) of Nicaragua over ten rounds in the main event. Urvanov, 26, hit the scales at 132.4, while Alvarado, 33, was just slightly over the junior lightweight limit at 131.
Alvarado is on a four-fight losing streak, dropping it consecutively to Roger Gutierrez (twice), Lamont Roach, and William Zepeda – all on points. Urvanov is 1-1 in 2022, losing a split decision to Angel Rodriguez in February, and getting a points win over Dmitry Khasiev in July.
• In the other ten-rounder, rapidly rising super middleweight switch-hitter Pavel Silyagin (11-0, 5 KOs) will test his skills versus upset-minded Argentinean Abraham Gabriel Buonarrigo (11-3, 9 KOs). Silyagin scaled at 171.9, while the Argentinean was considerably lighter at 166.6.
Silyagin, who had been holding the WBC Silver belt before the conflict, is best known for solid points victories over Isaac Chilemba and Azizbek Abdugofurov. Buonarrigo, on the other hand, gave hell to another prospect Aslambek Idigov in Beorgad this August, dropping a very tight split decision.
• Light welterweight Khariton Agrba (9-0, 5 KOs) takes on former WBA/IBF unified champion Julius Indongo (24-6, 13 KOs) for eight rounds of action. Agrba was fit at 139.6 today, while the 2008 Olympian for Namibia Indongo was a bit over the 140lb limit at 142.1.
Agrba’s arguably best win came last December when he stopped 42-6-2 Petr Petrov in three rounds. Indongo, 39, scored a monumental upset with his 40-seconds blowout of then-IBF/IBO 140lb champion Eduard Troyanovskiy in December 2016. He followed it with a road win over three-division titleholder Ricky Burns for the WBA potion, before being scorched in three by Terrence Crawford in a four-belt unification five and a half years ago. He is just 2-5 after that.
• The third former beltholder Paulus Moses (40-6, 25 KOs) is set at 135 to test unheralded and unproven Vildan Minasov (8-1, 5 KOs) over eight. Minasov is 137.1. Moses of Namibia briefly held the regular version of the belt in 2008.
• Welterweight prospect Sergey Lubkovich (14-0, 10 KOs) will be matched with Sagadat Rakhmankul (8-3, 6 KOs) also for eight rounds. Lubkovich was scaled at 147.2, Rakhmankul was a notch heavier at 147.7
Other fights of the card include:
• Nikita Zon (4-0-1, 3 KOs) versus Manuk DIlanyan (12-9-2, 5 KOs) – 8 rounds at super middleweight
• Vadim Tukov (8-0, 3 KOs) versus Alexander Elizarov (9-1, 3 KOs) – 8 rounds at middleweight
• Denis Savitskiy (5-0-1, 3 KO) versus Denis Tsaryuk (13-6, 10 KOs) – 6 rounds at cruiserweight
• Demid Luchnikov (3-0, 1 KO) versus Khasanboy Mirzahamrayev (1-3) – 6 rounds at Light Welterweighs
The tourney starts at 3 PM LT. It could have been even sounder, hadn’t Cuban heavyweight Mike Perez withdrawn two weeks ago due to health issues. He was scheduled to take on 2016 Olympic champion Evgeny Tischenko in the previous main event of the night.