‘I will right the wrong’: Bektemir Melikuziev confident he will avenge loss to Gabriel Rosado

Bektemir Melikuziev will be looking to avenge and his first and thus far only career loss when he faces Gabriel Rosado in a rematch on Saturday’s Davis vs Garcia pay-per-view card.

Rosado, 37, vows to repeat the performance and make it 2-0 against the Uzbek power puncher, but Melikzuiev says he has wanted this fight for a reason, and that he knows what went wrong last time.

“This is the fight I’ve been asking for. It’s on the same card as the biggest fight of the year and it’s a dream come true. I am ready,” Melikuziev said.

“The loss to Rosado is what happens when you get reckless in boxing. I got reckless and paid for it. I went for the finish. This is why we are having the rematch. I am confident that I will right the wrong.”

Melikuziev (11-1, 9 KO) was winning the fight as expected — even scoring a first round knockdown — until he wasn’t, when Rosado (26-16-1, 15 KO) caught him with a huge shot that knocked the younger, heavily favored fighter out and ended the bout.

That win got Rosado, now 37, more chances at notable fights, and he has lost three in a row.

Melikuziev also says that he’s not going to entirely change the way he fights.

“I am exactly the same as I have always been. I’m always serious and mean inside the ring,” he said. “I’m a happy and a nice person outside of the ring, but inside the ring I have one goal and that’s to get a victory.

“It’s going to be an exciting fight, a banger, a war.”