By Sean McDaniel: After toiling away for 9 years as a pro, the 35-year-old Sullivan Barrera (21-1, 14 KOs) will be challenging WBA World light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (12-0, 10 KOs) for his title next Saturday night on March 3 in the co-feature bout on the Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev vs. Igor Mikhalkin card at Madison Square Garden in New York. HBO World Championship Boxing will be televising the Bivol vs. Barrera and Kovalev vs. Mikhalkin fights live.
By Jim Dower: Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev says he’s in top shape to defend his WBO light heavyweight title against #5 WBO Igor Mikhalkin (21-1, 9 KOs) for their fight on March 3 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
By Stanley White: Sergey Kovalev makes his first defense of his WBO light heavyweight belt in on March 3 against Igor Mikhalkin (21-1, 9 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York. Kovalev vs. Igor Mikhalkin will be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing. The co-feature is a very good fight between WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and Sullivan Barrera. That fight promises to produce nonstop 2-way action in a true 50-50 fight. The real story of this card isn’t Kovalev. It’s Bivol. He’s the one that is being groomed as the next star for the light heavyweight division.
By Stanley White: WBO light heavyweight world champion Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev (31-2-1, 27 KOs) will be making a soft first defense of his WBO title on March 3 against little known #7 IBF Igor Mikhalkin (21-1, 9 KOs) on HBO World Championship Boxing at Madison Square Garden in New York.
By Allan Fox: With unbeaten Artur Beterbiev pulling out of the IBF 175lb eliminator bout due to a shoulder injury he suffered this week in training, the International Boxing Federation will now having #8 IBF Sullivan Barrera (16-0, 11 KOs) face #10 IBF Igor Mikhalkin in the IBF light heavyweight title eliminator.
By Allan Fox: It looks like the International Boxing Federation (IBF) made a mistake when they were looking for an opponent for #2 IBF Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KOs) for his IBF light heavyweight eliminator bout on the undercard of the Lucian Bute vs. James DeGale card on November 28th Quebec City.
Initially, instead of picking out No.13 IBF Igor Mikhalkin (17-1, 9 KOs), as the IBF should have done, they skipped him and instead selected No.14 IBF Karo Murat as the opponent for Beterbiev to fight on November 28th. It was only later that the IBF became aware that they had skipped the higher ranked #13 Mikhalkin in selecting an opponent for Beterbiev.