MOSCOW, November 28 (R-Sport) - The showdown for the WBA light welterweight title between unbeaten Russian Khabib Allakhverdiev two-time former world champion Joan Guzman is going to resemble a war, a promoter said.
Friday's fight in Sunrise, Florida, pits together the sanctioning body's top two boxers, and Guzman's representative Henry Rivalta insisted it would not disappoint.
“We could have named this show World War III, because every fight is going to be a war, it’s going to be great,” Rivalta told fightnews.com.
The 36-year-old Guzman, of the Dominican Republic, has claimed to have put in especially hard training not only to win a third world title, but “to become a legend.”
The belt was vacated after Argentine boxer Marcos Maidana moved up a weight division.
Guzman, who got a 33-0-1 record with 20 knockouts, is first in October’s WBA super lightweight rankings, while Allakhverdiev is second with 8 knockouts in 17 wins and no draws.
Dagestan-born Allakhverdiev’s recent record includes a sixth-round technical decision over former WBC, WBA and IBF lightweight champion Nate Campbell last year. The 29-year-old earned a fourth-round knockout against South African Kaizer Mabuza in his most recent bout in June.
