Akhmadaliev next for Roman-Doheny winner

When the WBA gave dispensation for super bantamweight champion Daniel Roman to unify against IBF champ TJ Doheny, they did so with a caveat: whoever wins that fight must face their #1 contender, Murodjon Akhmadaliev, within 90 days of that unification bout. Akhmadaliev, meanwhile, is “able to make a fight with an opponent of his choice” while Roman and Doheny sort themselves out.

Akhmadaliev (5-0, 4 KO) represented Uzbekistan as a bantamweight in Rio, where he scored the division’s sole stoppage on his way to a bronze medal finish. The 24-year-old, fighting out of Indio, CA, debuted last March and has faced decent competition thus far.

Even with his strong amateur pedigree, pitting him against one of the five best super bantamweights on the planet within two years of his first pro fight seems a little excessive. It worked for Vasiliy Lomachenko, but we’re not far removed from fellow Rio competitor Lu Bin’s unsuccessful crack at gold against Carlos Canizales.