Chilemba’s next fight August 2 against Russian Bovol in New Jersey
Malawi’s pride in boxing, Isaac ‘Golden Child’ Chilemba next fight, after beating Australian Blake Caparello by a 12 round unanimous decision of their world light heavyweight title last March, will next take on Russian Dmitry Bivol in a WBA light heavyweight title against on August 4.
According to www.boxingnews24.com, the deal for this fight, to be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was sealed on Wednesday
The boxing news site quotes Bivol as saying: “I am glad that my next opponent will be a tough and well-known boxer in Chilemba. I will do my best to put on another exciting performance for all my fans.”
But the website plays down Chilemba’s prowess, saying: “The fans aren’t too thrilled with the news of the 27-year-old Bivol fighting Chilemba, as they wanted to see the Russian fighter face bigger threats like Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Joe Smith Jr., Adonis Stevenson, Marcus Browne and Anthony Yarde.
“The 31-year-old Chilemba isn’t old for 175lb fighter, but his career has hit a slide in the last three years with him losing 3 out of his last 4 fights since 2015.
“Chilemba lost to Eleider Alvarez, Kovalev and Gvozdyk. Chilemba was competitive against Alvarez and Kovalev. He gave both of them a lot of problems. In the Gvozdyk fight, Chilemba never looked comfortable at all in getting dominated and stopped in the 8th round in November 2016. Chilemba broke his hand in that fight. However, he was never competitive even before the injury occurred.
“Chilemba took all of 2017 off in healing from his hand injury. He came back last March in beating former light heavyweight title challenger Blake Caparello by a 12 round unanimous decision. It was a good win for Chilemba, but it still doesn’t cover up the fact that he’s lost three out of his last four fights,” says the site of Chilemba.
Chilemba is quoted as saying: “2017 was a bad year for me, recovering from [arm] surgery and thinking that my career was over, but I’m a fighter. I couldn’t give up and I won’t give up. I’m going to take this opportunity and give it everything I have.”
And on Bivol, the site says the Russian’s manager Vadim Kornilov says they had a hard time finding someone that would agree to fight Bivol. They finally found Chilemba, and they’re thankful they got him, because no one wanted to fight him.
Bivol (born 18 December 1990) has held the WBA light-heavyweight title since 2017.
Online information says he took up boxing at the age of six, before moving to Russia at 11. He was a decorated amateur, winning two world championships at the junior (U-17) level, as well as a bronze medal at the 2008 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in the middleweight division.
Bivol won the Russian national amateur boxing championships in 2012 and 2014, as a light heavyweight.
Chilemba, born 17 May 1987, has held the IBO super-middleweight title from 2010 to 2011, and challenged for the WBA (Undisputed), IBF, and WBO light-heavyweight titles in 2016.
The Super-middleweight Light-heavyweight champion height is 6ft 0in (183 cm). His reach is 73 in (185 cm) and his stance is Orthodox.
His boxing record is from the total 32 fights is 25 wins, 10 by knockout, and he lost five and drew 2.
