Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs Ryosuke Iwasa set for April 3 on DAZN

It’ll be a little later than we thought, but Murodjon Akhmadaliev will indeed make his first defense as unified super bantamweight champion against interim IBF champ Ryosuke Iwasa. Uzbekistan’s National Olympic Committee held a press conference this morning announcing an April 3rd card in Tashkent, which will feature some of the country’s most prominent fighting exports.

Notable names include the returning Israil Madrimov, rising junior welterweight Shakhram Giyasov, and Olympics-bound heavyweight colossus Bakhodir Jalolov.

Akhmadaliev (8-0, 6 KO) claimed Bronze in Rio, running afoul of Robeisy Ramirez in the semis. After turning pro in 2018, he fought his way to a title shot in less than two years, successfully out-dueling the very capable Daniel Roman in January 2020. Iwasa (27-3, 17 KO) won the IBF belt in 2017 with a TKO of Yukinori Oguni and defended it once before losing it in a questionable loss to TJ Doheny.

Between Akhmadaliev, Luis Nery, Stephen Fulton, and Brandon Figueroa, the division is red-hot at the moment, and I’m looking forward to seeing “MJ” pursue more belts if he can get past a legitimate challenge in Iwasa.