Bakhodir Jalolov will no longer fight on the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undercard on May 18.
The highly rated heavyweight contender from Uzbekistan is promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank – the same company who are USA co-promoters of Fury.
As a result, he initially got a spot on the Fury vs Usyk undercard when the fight was planned for February 17.
However, the undisputed heavyweight world title clash was postponed to May 18 as the Brit suffered a cut in sparring.
The new undercard has now been announced and, while most of the bouts have simply been moved across to the new date, Jalolov is nowhere to be seen on the new show.
Funnily enough, the Uzbek is instead set to fight the man who cut Fury in sparring, Agron Smakici, on a separate show on April 14.
This may well be because after this he needs to focus on his plans to box at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Jalolov is 14-0 (14 KOs) as a pro boxer so far, though at this point he is better known for his amateur career.
The 28-year-old won Olympic super-heavyweight gold at the Tokyo 2020 games and intends to retain the title this year.
However, he made the most headlines for a moment of huge controversy at the AIBA World Championships in September 2019.
Since the 2016 Olympics, pro boxers have been permitted to enter some competitions which traditionally belonged to amateurs and this has led to ongoing arguments over safety, with headguards also removed.
This debate intensified following a super-heavyweight World Championship quarter-final in 2019.
Jalolov was 6-0 (6 KOs) as a rising pro at the time and scored a massive KO of highly-touted American starlet Richard Torrez, who was still an amateur then.
Torrez had to be stretchered out of the ring as a result.
He later confirmed he was okay with a message on social media, thanking people for their well wishes.
The incident provoked different reactions with some furious at the contest and others defending it.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman declared that he thought the fight was ‘brutal and criminal’ as he expressed his feelings on Twitter.
However, he was contradicted by those who pointed out that Torrez was far from inexperienced himself.
Now, Jalolov may well cause controversy once more as he heads back to fight amateurs again at Paris 2024.
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News Summary:
- Undefeated pro heavyweight who once caused uproar with ‘brutal and criminal’ KO of amateur boxer no longer fighting on Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undercard
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