By Allan Fox: In a battle of top contenders, #1 WBC 175lb contender Isaac Chilemba (24-2-2, 10 KOs) will be facing the highly ranked but still totally untested #2 WBC Eleider Alvarez (18-0, 10 KOs) in a World Boxing Council 175lb title eliminator bout at a still to be determined date in November.
The winner of the Chilemba-Alvarez fight will be the #1 mandatory challenger to WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. The fight between Alvarez and Chilemba will be taking place in Quebec.
The deal has already been made between Chilemba and Alvarez as of yesterday. Alvarez, 31, is coming off of an unimpressive 12 round decision win over Isidro Ranoni Prieto last August in a fight in which Alvarez shaken up once or twice by the hard hitting Argentinian fighter.
It was supposed to have been a mismatch, but Alvarez fought it surprisingly difficult to win the fight. You can make can make an argument that Alvarez was exposed in that fight by Prieto, because if it had been a good fighter like Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev, Sergey Kovalev or Yunieski Gonzalez, Alvarez likely would have been beaten. He showed some serious flaws in his game in that fight.
“Alvarez and Chilemba are both at the elite level of the light heavyweight division,” said Yvon Michel, President of GYM, “insuring a spectacularly intense fight that will determine the rest of their respective careers.”
The winner of the Alvarez-Chilemba fight is pretty much only determining a future knockout victim for Stevenson, because I don’t see either of these two fighters as having near enough talent to beat Stevenson. Instead of these two guys fighting each other in the WBC eliminator, the WBC should have Beterbiev and Andrezj Fonfara or Beterbiev and Yunieski Gonzalez fighting in the WBC eliminator.
Chilemba would likely be torn apart by Fonfara, Beterbiev and Gonzalez. The same with Alvarez. The World Boxing Council has fought two decent fighters to fight in their eliminator but nearly the best contenders in my view.
“Isaac and Main Events are very much looking forward to the fight and very happy to have come to an agreement with our friends at GYM,” added Duva, CEO of Main Events.
Chilemba, 28, has won his last four fights since losing to Tony Bellew by a 12 round decision in 2013. In his last four fights, Chilemba has beaten Vasily Lepikhin, Cory Cummings, Denis Grachev and Michael Gbenga.
Chilemba hasn’t fought anyone good during his career, which is why he only has two defeats on his resume instead of 6 or 7 defeats. Believe me, Chilemba would have a lot more losses if he had been fighting guys like Fonfara, Beterbiev, Sullivan Barrera, Jean Pascal, Stevenson, Kovalev and Yunieski Gonzalez.
J’Leon Love faces Osumana Adama on September 29th
#14 IBF super middleweight fringe contender J’Leon Love (20-1, 11 KOs) will be looking to bring his career back from the ashes this month when he faces former world title challenger Osumana Adama (22-4, 16 KOs) on 9/29 in a 10 round scheduled fight that will be televised on Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 and Fox Deportes from The Pearl Theater at Palms Casino Resort. The Love vs. Adama card will be on the undercard of the Javier Fortuna vs. Carlos Ivan Velasquez world title fight.
Love, 27, is still trying to climb his way back to the top after losing by a 3rd round knockout defeat to Rogelio Medina last year in August 2014. Since that surprise loss, Love has beaten Scott Sigmon and Jason Escalera by knockouts.
34-year-old Adama was stopped in the 7th round last year by IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in February 2014. Since then, Adama has David Okai by a 7th round knockout last February.
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