By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg (28-0-2, 21 KOs) got some bad news on Friday with his opponent #15 IBF Paulus Ambunda suffering a hamstring injury during training for their September 13th scheduled fight, causing him to pull out of the fight.
Quigg’s promoter will now need to try and find a suitable replacement that can come in on 3 weeks’ notice to take the fight. Obviously, the World Boxing Association will need to approve the opponent so that they can sanction the fight. The good news is that with Ambunda being a fringe level fighter at #15, it really shouldn’t be that difficult for Quigg’s promoter Eddie Hearn to find another opponent.
Indeed, you’ve got to assume that Hearn can get a much better opponent for Quigg to fight. I’m not sure if that’ what they’re looking for though, because it might be a risky thing for Quigg to take on someone with just 3 weeks to study their style. Quigg struggled badly last year in getting a 12 round draw against Yoandris Salinas.
It would be nice if Hearn finds a high level fighter to come in and take the place of Ambunda, but I can’t see that happening. With so little time before the fight it would likely take a big purse to lure a decent level contender to walk in off the street and face Quigg. With the right money offer, they can get someone good, but I just doubt that they’re going to go that route.
Hearn might want to ask WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux is he’d be interested in taking the fight on short notice. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rigondeaux said yes. Rigondeaux is one of those fighters that has so much talent that he probably doesn’t need a long amount of preparation to beat the top fighters in the division.
Comments are closed.