A solid UK domestic tussle is on the horizon, as Florian Marku and Chris Kongo have signed on for a grudge match “expected to take place in March.”
The pair’s longstanding animosity boiled over last August when Kongo (14-2, 7 KO) crashed an interview with Marku (13-0-1, 8 KO) ahead of “The Albanian King’s” 54-second wipeout of Dylan Moran on the Smith-Eubank 2 undercard. Marku had his eyes on bigger prizes, calling out Conor Benn and Kell Brook, but will have to settle for settling this score.
Though Kongo is nowhere near as lucrative an opponent as those two, he’s still Marku’s stiffest test to date, having barely fallen short against Ekow Essuman when they met in January of last year. Not the kind of fight that can carry a show by itself, but worth looking forward to.
“He wanted to get the eyes of people looking at him. I knew that he wanted that fight,” Marku told Sky Sports.
“I said to him ‘first of all go beat the guys that beat you’,” Marku explained. “Then come and speak to me.
“He was not going and I pushed him.”
Kongo said: “Him being a hothead how he is, he ended up pushing me. It could have been an altercation but security’s there.
“I’m excited now. The fight is here. This is what we want, this is what the supporters are asking and we’re going to give it to them. It’s a good one.
“Now I believe he’s been backed into a corner, he can’t go nowhere now. He’s got to fight the likes of me or any of the top 10 in the UK now.
“It’s only right for him to fight me because we’ve built up a rapport now.”