Efe Ajagba to return Mar. 7 in Kownacki-Helenius co-feature

Nigerian heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba will return to the ring on Mar. 7, according to ESPN, facing an opponent to be named in the co-feature of the card headlined by Adam Kownacki vs Robert Helenius.

Ajagba (12-0, 10 KO) is a 25-year-old former Olympian now training in Texas with Ronnie Shields. He’s one of the better heavyweight prospects in the game right now, a 6’6” guy who usually weighs in at a fit 240 or so, 85-inch reach and power to spare.

Ajagba fought four times in 2019, and we got to learn a few things about him along the way. After crushing wins over Amir Mansour and Michael Wallisch in March and April of last year, Ajagba went a 10-round distance with Ali Eren Demirezen in July, then got into a war with determined veteran Iago Kiladze in his last fight on Dec. 21. He dropped Kiladze twice and stopped him standing in round five of that fight, but Kiladze caught Ajagba and put him down in the third, too.

Ajagba-TBA will be a 10-round fight.

The Mar. 7 show will also feature a heavyweight opener, as Mike Coppinger is reporting that Cuban prospect Frank Sanchez (14-0, 11 KO) will face scrappy Joey Dawejko (20-7-4, 11 KO) in another 10-round bout. The 27-year-old Sanchez, now based in Las Vegas, also went 4-0 in 2019, smashing Willie Jake Jr, Jason Bergman, and Victor Bisbal before shutting out Jack Mulowayi over 10 rounds in October, his last fight.

Dawejko, 29, doesn’t have the prettiest record or physique or anything, really, but he’s only been stopped once, by Charles Martin back in 2013. He’s 1-3 in his last four but notably gave Sergey Kuzmin a really tough fight last March, and in his last outing he beat Rodney Hernandez over 10 rounds.