Matchroom Boxing has a trio of talented fighters from Uzbekistan on its roster, and Eddie Hearn’s promotional company is looking to make them star attractions in their home country and everywhere else.
The most advanced, career-wise, is Murodjon Akhmadaliev, who won the WBA and IBF junior featherweight titles on Jan. 30 in a terrific battle with the experienced and battle-tested Daniel Roman.
Akhmadaliev (8-0, 6 KO) is a 25-year-old southpaw with skills and power, who aimed to get into the world title mix quickly as a pro and has achieved that. Coming up behind him are 25-year-old junior middleweight Israil Madrimov (5-0, 5 KO), who has his sights set on a world title soon, too, and 26-year-old junior welterweight Shakhram Giyasov (9-0, 7 KO).
“MJ, Israil and Shakram are such talented and exciting fighters,” said Hearn. “I would love to see MJ go for all the belts at 122 pounds, while world title action is not far away for Israil and Shakhram. They all have the world at their feet and I hope that we can one day do a huge show in Uzbekistan too.”
There is a good chance that all three really will get to that world title level. Akhmadaliev, who won bronze at Rio 2016, is already there, and Madrimov truly doesn’t appear far off, and fights in a division where we’ve seen a ton of instability over the last couple of years. Giyasov, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist, had a more competitive fight than the scores would tell you in Apr. 2019 against Emanuel Taylor, but came back in August to stop Darleys Perez in the first round.