Russian light welterweight boxer Khabib Allakhverdiev has piled the pressure on his next opponent Kendall Holt by claiming the former WBO champion is mentally weak in comments Wednesday.
Allakhverdiev will face Holt in Moscow on June 20, where a win for the unbeaten Russian could lead to an IBF title fight against another American, Zab Judah.
“The weak side, as it seems to me and my team, is that you can break him psychologically,” Allakhverdiev said.
“His strengths are that he’s a technical boxer, he’s tall, you can’t hang around near him after you throw a punch because he’ll reply in the blink of an eye.”
Allakhverdiev trains with Kostya Tszyu, who unified the light welterweight division in 2001 by knocking out Judah.
The Russian and his team will start thinking about strategies for Judah after the Holt bout, Allakhverdiev said.
“He’s got very high speed, he’s an experienced boxer too, so he has a lot of good qualities, but you can find the key to any boxer.”
“If we win in the upcoming bout, then we’ll prepare for Zab and learn his weak points.”
Allakhverdiev has won all of his 16 fights since making his debut against Miguel Ortiz at Madison Square Garden in 2007, which started a streak of six wins in seven months.
He stopped former IBF, WBO and WBA champion Nate Campbell in September and followed it up by beating Ignacio Mendoza in Moscow in February for the seventh knockout of his career.
