With Wladimir Klitschko pulling out of his scheduled Saturday "clash" with Jean Marc Mormeck, four of the undercard fights that were scheduled for the show have been moved to Friday at the Ballsaal Interconti-Hotel in Düsseldorf.
The new main event will pit WBA middleweight "regular" titleholder Gennady Golovkin (21-0, 18 KO) against Lajuan Simon (23-3-2, 12 KO). Golovkin, 29, is one of the many top middleweights who has yet to distinguish himself from the pack, but the talent is there, and he fights in a fan-friendly style that will likely gain him some fans along the way, and also probably cause him to lose some fights. We saw the best and worst of Golovkin in his last fight, a TKO-10 win over Kassim Ouma in June.
Ruslan Chikov of BoxingScene.com says that Golovkin may finally have a new promoter, too. His nasty split from Universum is now in the past, and reports are that he's signed a deal with K2, the Klitschko brothers' company.
Simon, 32, hasn't fought since last December, when he lost a split decision to Dionisio Miranda. He's probably best-known as a mediocre challenger to Arthur Abraham back in March 2009, and three months after that he gave Sebastian Sylvester a decent fight, so the Philly fighter is no stranger to German soil.
[ Related: Klitschko Bros. Considering March Double-Header ]
Also on the card, American heavyweight and Klitschko undercard regular Johnathon Banks (27-1-1, 18 KO) is scheduled to face veteran DaVarryl "Touch of Sleep" Williamson (27-6, 23 KO). Williamson, now 43, made a comeback in April and knocked out Mike Marrone in seven rounds. It was his first fight in almost two years.
Kazakhstan's Isa Akberbayev (8-0, 5 KO) will face Armin Dollinger (21-2, 8 KO) in a 12-round cruiserweight fight. Junior middleweight prospect Tony Harrison (4-0, 4 KO) of Detroit will face Harut Sahakyan (4-0, 1 KO) in a six-round bout.