Russian boxer world champion 2023 Sharabutdin Ataev said that in a duel with the Azerbaijani of Cuban origin, Loren Alfonso intends to show his character.
The fight, which will take place on February 16 in Dushanbe, will last 10 rounds and will lead the next tournament of the IBA Night of Champions series. Alfonso is the 2021 world champion and the winner of the 2019 European Games.
— We have been preparing for the fight for more than two months, we are 100% ready. Yes, there were some nuances, but we overcame everything. Now I feel great after losing weight. I’m full and urinating, ready for battle. In our confrontation, the score is 2 to 1 in my favor. Furthermore, I don’t think the upcoming battle will be the last of our confrontation. In the future we will meet again either as professionals or at the World or European Championships.
In the upcoming fight, I think I have an advantage. I have more experience in professional boxing. I come from Dagestan, I have a fighting character, so I will show my character. And 10 rounds is the ideal distance to demonstrate your character. We expect a competitive fight and I aim to emerge victorious. But I enter the fight as a world champion, so he has nothing to lose, ”the correspondent reports, reporting Atayev’s words.
The upcoming fight will be the fourth in the head-to-head between Atayev and Alfonso, and so far the score of personal matches is in favor of the Russian. For the first time, these athletes met in the quarterfinals of the 2021 World Championships, when Alfonso showed himself stronger by the majority of the judges’ decisions. But then Ataev won, and exclusively in the final – first in February 2023 by unanimous decision at an international tournament in Morocco, then in May by split decision at the World Championships in Tashkent.
The IBA Night of Champions tournament in Dushanbe will be broadcast live on the channel on February 16, the broadcast starts at 20:00 (Moscow time).
Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
