Things are moving remarkably quickly in boxing’s smallest division. WBO minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo scored an impressive knockout on DAZN less than two weeks ago, WBC and IBF champs Yudai and Ginjiro Shigeoka revealed March 31st title defenses earlier this week, and now the WBA has ordered long-reigning champ Knockout CP Freshmart to defend his title against Hasanboy Dusmatov.
The pair have until March 8th to come to terms, though they may not need that long; Dusmatov’s (6-0, 5 KO) promoter tells Julius Julianus that they’re just waiting to confirm the date.
Knockout (24-0, 9 KO), who’s held at least some form of the WBA belt for nearly a decade and been The Man at 105 since the fall of Wanheng Menayothin, hasn’t fought since beating Menayothin in their overdue showdown two Julys ago. There’s actually a weird story there, though; he got the call to fight secondary titlist Erick Rosa and was slated to face him in Thailand last March after winning the purse bid, but immigration authorities detained Rosa at the airport due to visa issues and subsequently took his passport.
The WBA wound up scheduling another purse bid, but per Jake Donovan, Rosa’s promoter failed to stage the bout due to the Showtime-PBC fallout and Rosa wound up vacating in favor of a move to 108.
Dusmatov is a hell of an ask after a year and a half on the sidelines. The 2016 Rio gold medalist is among the best of the Uzbek dream team and a genuine threat to Knockout’s reign. Fingers crossed the fight comes together and we get some legal way to watch it.