WBA orders Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs Kevin Gonzalez final eliminator after Tomoki Kameda declines

While we wait for Naoya Inoue and Marlon Tapales to finalize their undisputed super bantamweight title fight, a bit of news from the rest of the division.

A couple months back, the WBA ordered recently deposed unified champ Murodjon Akhmadaliev to fight Tomoki Kameda in a final eliminator. Yesterday, however, the sanctioning body revealed that Kameda will instead continue his career at 126, leaving Akhmadaliev to fight no. 3 Kevin Gonzalez.

Not sure why it took Kameda from the start of June to the end of August to make that decision, but I am not privy to his thoughts. I will say that I don’t see his style translating that well to a higher weight class considering his lack of power.

Gonzalez (26-0-1, 13 KO) has a couple of decent wins in his native Mexico, but nobody that would ever sniff the rankings. On paper, he’s mincemeat for Akhmadaliev (11-1, 8 KO). While the comeback there is that Akhmadaliev should have also mulched Tapales, at least “The Nightmare” was a former champ with lots of high-level experience.