Unbeaten however largely untested contenders Granit Shala and Oleksandr Zakhozhyi will meet for the vacant European heavyweight title on the AGON Sportpark, Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany on April 13.
Shala (15-0, 5 knockouts) turned skilled in his native Germany in 2017. Since then, the 27-year-old was remained energetic dealing with steadily higher opposition.
The 6-foot-3, 260-pound fighter holds wins over journeyman Zine Eddine Benmakhlouf (UD 10) and, most just lately, Argentine trialhorse Jorge Alejandro Arias (TKO 6).
Zakhozhyi (18-0, 14 KOs) additionally made his debut in 2017. Nonetheless, the 30-year-old Ukrainian has needed to battle principally abroad.
The 6-foot-9 fighter has overwhelmed the likes of Kevin Johnson (UD 8), Pavel Bitter (TKO 3) and Evgenios Lazaridis (TKO 1).
Over the previous few years the EBU heavyweight title has been stagnant and hasn’t attracted as many prepared suitors because the European sanctioning physique would love, and has solely been contested twice since November 2020, when Joe Joyce impressively stopped Daniel Dubois in 10 rounds. The Brit rapidly stepped into Worldwide class with out defending his title. A number of fights turned down the possibility to contest the title and after a number of modifications Agit Kabayel regained his previous title getting off the canvas to cease Agron Smakici in three-rounds in March 2023.
Oleksandr Zakhozhyi – Photograph by Torsten Helmke
Since then, we’ve seen a sequence of pull outs. Initially Tom Schwarz was the official challenger to Kabayel, who vacated. Schwartz was then tabbed to fulfill Ryad Merhy, just for the German to then transfer in a special path. Merhy was then matched with Dubois. This time Merhy determined to not take the battle. In stepped Granit Shala and out stepped Dubois. Then Joyce was known as to face Shala however determined towards taking that route. In the end that left us with Shala and Zakhozhyi, who’re matched to fill the emptiness.
The undercard will see the return of former IBF middleweight titlist Vincenzo Gualtieri for the primary time since he misplaced his championship to Zhanibek Alimkhanuly in a unification final yr. Gualtieri (21-1-1, 7 KOs) will meet Italian-based Nigerian Joshua Nmomah (13-2, 4 KOs).
In the meantime, Thomas Piccirillo (13-0-4, 4 KOs) will face Alexander Pavlov (19-3, 14 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round middleweight bout. Lelito Lopez (10-0-2, 7 KOs) and Mohammed Graich (7-2, 5 KOs) sq. off in an 8-round tremendous middleweight attraction. Heavyweight Alexander Mueller vom Berge (6-0, 4 KOs) will face an opponent to be named and light-weight Hamsat Shadalov (6-0, 1 KO) may also face an as but unknown opponent.
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